Shillong:
The Division Bench of the Meghalaya High Court was informed that a status report has been filed by the State pertaining to the traffic situation in Shillong where certain immediate, short-term, mid-term, and long-term proposals have also been indicated.
The High Court commended the initiative taken by the state to procure a large number of buses for ferrying school children and to ensure that individual cars do not have to come to drop off or pick up children.
The Court observed that despite school buses being available, parents or guardians of wards are more concerned with the security of students, particularly girls, and may not be inclined to allow them to use buses or public transport even if that entails a considerable degree of inconvenience to the parents or guardians.
The Court stated, “However, it has been reported in newspapers and corroborated by Khan (advocate) appearing for the State, that CCTVs have been fitted in the buses and an App has been circulated or will be circulated to the parents for them to follow real-time, the location of the buses and what may be going on inside such buses.”
The system called the Real-Time Passenger Information System, is almost revolutionary and should allay all the misgivings a concerned parent or guardian may have as to the security of the school-going child traveling in a bus.
The Court stated, “Other measures need also to be adopted to ease the congestion on the roads, whether by building roads, parking lots, making one-way streets or other forms of regulation. In addition, if the proposed flyover between Rilbong and Jhalupara materialises, a lot of the traffic congestion at the entry point of Shillong would have been eased. The State should continue the good effort in such regard.”
The matter will be listed on July 7.