School van operators agree to resume services

Karachi
A day after it staged a sit-in at Star Gate on Sharea Faisal and a boycott of services against the new SOP devised by the provincial transport and department and crackdown by the traffic police, the All Private School Van Service Association (APSVSA) announced on Friday to resume pick-and-drop of children from Saturday after a meeting with the DIG Traffi Amir Ahmed Shaikh.
A large number of private schools are also opening up on Saturdays to make up for the extended summer vacations.
The APSVSA president Abdul Karim said school van operators will resume pick-and-drop services for children from Saturday, following a round of negotiations with the DIG traffic in which both parties reached a settlement on the implementation on three points.
However, the main bone of contention, removal of CNG kits from school vans will be discussed with the DIG traffic in front of Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui who couldn’t be available on Friday.
However, he said, the main issue of removing gas cylinders will be discussed in the next meeting scheduled for next week with the commissioner.
“We were asked to paint the vehicles yellow but now we will put up a sign with the name of the school prominently,” he said. “We have also agreed to seat-by-seat sitting in the vans and not overloading them. Grills will also be removed from Suzuki vehicles and an attendant will be present to facilitate the children.”
Earlier in the day, the van operators had gathered at Millennium Mall situated on Jauhar Morr before marching on the Karachi Press Club from where the leaders were called into a meeting with DIG traffic.
According to the APSVSA president, the meeting gave us a chance to air our reservations over the SOPs and the DIG also agreed to a few of them.
The association on Thursday had announced a boycott of pick-and-drop services against the “biased and unjust” SOPs devised for them.
The APSVSA had also held a press conference at the KMC Elementary School in Saudabad after which it had went on to stage a sit-in in front of Star Gate for the acceptance of its demands.
On the other hand, the DIG Traffic Amir Ahmed Shaikh when contacted confirmed that he had met with van operators’ representatives. However, he denied accepting any of their demands or giving them any concessions, except for allowing the van operators not to paint their vehicles yellow.
“We had a meeting on Friday morning but no amendments or changes were made in the SOP,” he said. “The only point agreed was that van drivers will display the names of schools prominently in the front of the vehicles.”
Talking about Karim’s remarks about another meeting with the commissioner, the DIG said there will be no further meetings and absolutely no compromise on the removal of CNG cylinders from vehicles. --- With additional input from Salis bin Perwaiz