Cuttack, July 6: Police have decided to seek assistance of school authorities to put a stop on the practice of using autorickhaws to ferry students.

The move came after two kids had been injured in a road accident near Krushak Bazaar on June 28.

Though there are clear guidelines from the Supreme Court against autorickshaws carrying children to school, it is openly flouted across the city.

"We will launch a special awareness campaign and also request the school authorities not to allow children to come to school in autorickshaws," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

Arora said the drive would be launched shortly and stringent action would subsequently be taken against autorickshaws ferrying schoolchildren.

According to the apex court guidelines, school buses are required to have iron grills fitted on windows with name and phone number of the school mentioned at the back of the vehicle.

The autorickhaws not only carry more children than the capacity, they have no safety apparatus and are open from both sides.

Students can also be spotted sitting with the driver on the front seat - which is a clear violation of the motor vehicle rule.

"There is a concern over the safety of the schoolchildren coming in autorickshaws and other private vehicles. The issue of overloading was also raised in the traffic management committee," said senior advocate Pravat Ranjan Dash.

Dash said it had also been found that the drivers in most cases even did not have a valid driving licence.

Regional transport officer Dipti Ranjan Patra admitted that no vehicle having less than 13-seat capacity could be considered as a school bus or vehicle. "The state transport department is coming up with a policy to streamline transport system for schoolchildren," said Patra.

She said that though the school authorities were required to keep a database on how a student was coming to the institute irrespective of the bus facility, it had not been duly followed.

According to the existing provision, the school authorities need to submit the database containing the vehicle registration number, copy of the driving licence of the driver with his mobile number, if the child is coming in a private transport, to the regional transport office. The officer then should verify the vehicles and see if it is fit for transportation of the children.

"According to the regional transport office's instruction, we have already started the process of preparing the database on how the students are coming to the school. We hope to complete the process in the next couple of days," said Ipsita Das, principal of CDA-6 DAV School.