Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the authorities to formulate a policy within a month to ensure the safety of bus passengers. The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, also directed the authorities to ensure that traffic norms were adhered to both by the driver and citizens.
"We can only hope that the authorities perform the task they are meant to as it is not possible to monitor their day-to-day functioning," the bench held. In the petition, Nethaji Pokkuvarathu Thozhilalarkal Pathukappu Thozhil Sangam, represented by its president, M. Anburaj, sought a direction to the secretary and transport commissioner to take steps to provide manual or automatic doors in all the state government and private buses and direct them not to grant fitness certificates to buses till such doors were fixed.
The counsel for the petitioner, R.Y. George Williams, submitted that the Sangam also sought a direction to the police to register a case against the managing director and owner of private buses within a time-frame if an accident occurred due to footboard travel.
He said the doors, automatic and manual, that had been fixed in the buses were malfunctioning and it was due to the lack of doors that accidents took place and many died. The Sangam sent a representation to the authorities on March 3, 2014. Since there was no response, it filed the present petition.
