Cuttack, Nov. 23: Babita Swain, a homemaker from Sriramnagar, had hard time dropping her daughter to school because of a strike called by autorickshaw drivers today.

About 5,000 autorickshaw drivers under the banner of Cuttack district Tata Magic Auto Association observed a token strike to protest against the transport department's decision to stop allowing small vehicles to ferry schoolchildren from December 1.

The new policy on transport of schoolchildren says that only buses and vehicles with a seating capacity of a minimum of 13 will be allowed to ferry children across the state.

"I had no information about the strike. My daughter, a Class-VI student at Kendriya Vidyalaya, got late for school because I couldn't find an auto. By the time I found one, it was very late," said Babita.

Babita's husband works in a bank in Andhra Pradesh. They have no transport options except autos to drop their daughter to school and have been using it for two years even though their home is 1.5km from the school.

Like Babita, hundreds of guardians faced problems in arranging for alternatives to drop and pick their wards from various schools in the city today.

"I somehow managed to drop my children to St Joseph's High School today. It will be very difficult for me and my wife to pick up and drop the kids from school on a daily basis," said Cantonment Road resident Biju Mathew.

"We welcome any decision as far as the safety of the children is concerned. But, the government has not reviewed the ground reality in trying to impose the ban. It will affect several families as their livelihood would be at stake," said the association's working president Basant Sahu.

Sahu said that as the roads in Cuttack were very narrow, buses would add to traffic congestion. All autorickshaw drivers have started installing safety grills and the number of schoolchildren they are carrying does not go beyond the permissible limit, he said.

"We want an immediate rollback of the decision as most of the income generated from transportation of schoolchildren is spent towards repayment of loans for our vehicles," said Kishore Sahu, an auto driver.

According to the new transport policy for schoolchildren, all the school buses will be fitted with speed governors and GPS systems. The school authorities will paint the vehicles golden yellow and write "school bus" on the front and rear top of the buses.

The contact numbers of the school bus in-charge, administrator, local regional transport officer and police station will also be painted on the buses. A separate email ID will be created and displayed on the vehicle for registration of complaints.