NAGPUR: With drivers of school buses and vans ferrying students facing the brunt of Covid-induced lockdown, members of Shalya Vidyarthi Vahatuk Vyavasay Bachav Sangharsh Samiti will stage a ‘rasta roko’ protest on Tuesday to draw attention of both the central and state governments.
For more than a year, the drivers of these vehicles are barely managing to sustain, and many are on the verge of mortgaging or selling their vehicles with reportedly no help from the state government.
Chandrakant Jangle, coordinator of the association, said that not only elected representatives but the administration, too, had ignored the plight of bus and van drivers.
“Hence, the association decided to launch rasta roko of MP and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, district guardian minister Nitin Raut and district collector Ravindra Thakare from June 8,” he added.
Another association member Ajay Chaure pointed out that the state government had considered many lockdown-affected people and announced relief packages, but nothing for them.
The association demanded that the state announce a relief package of Rs10,000 for each driver’s family.
They also appealed to the administration to direct financial institutions to give them relaxations in paying EMIs of their vehicles during the lockdown.
Financial institutions should not charge EMIs until the government allows educational institutions to start physical classes, they stated.
As the vans and buses were stranded for the last one year, the association has also demanded that the government enhance the life span of their vehicles by five years from the existing 15 years.