SHILLONG:
Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma, on September 11, suggested the need to send buses under the Sustainable Transport and Efficient Mobility Society (STEMS) programme for schools and colleges in different districts of the state since they have no takers in Shillong.
“If there are no takers in Shillong, we should send them (STEM buses) to the colleges and schools across the state,” Sangma told reporters.
He said that the majority of the parents were not keen to take the service buses. “Therefore, we have decided to discuss with the Urban Affairs department that if the schools and colleges in Shillong don’t want to use the buses, we should send them to other districts of the state. We will take up the matter with the department and we will do the needful,” the minister added.
According to him, the government is trying to give the best services to the people but parents seem to be not willing to trust others in sending their children to school.
The inability of the government to convince school authorities to mandatorily use school buses in order to reduce traffic congestion in Shillong has compelled the government to park these buses at the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) Mawlai Mawïong ever since these vehicles were launched in January this year.
These buses under the STEMS programme were launched to focus on mobility and overall transport to decongest Shillong city.
The state government decided to introduce these STEMS buses with the objective of reducing the traffic congestion in the city especially after conducting a study which showed approximately 27,000 students came to schools located in Laitumkhrah and Dhankheti area every day and almost 60 per cent of them use private mode of transport.