The state government has directed owners of commercial vehicles, such as pool cars used to transport schoolchildren, to ensure that the tracking devices installed are operational and the panic buttons are fit.

The tracking devices are vital for the proper functioning of panic buttons inside the vehicles.

On Tuesday, a meeting was held between senior transport department officials and owners of commercial vehicles, including buses, trucks, and pool cars, at Paribahan Bhavan in Kasba.

The officials told the owners that they can't keep the tracking devices non-functional and recharge them only during fitness tests.

A commercial vehicle must have a functional tracking device fitted to it to clear the mandatory fitness test, according to a guideline issued by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).

"Unless a vehicle location tracking device (VLTD) is recharged after paying the requisite amount, the panic buttons fitted to it won't work. If someone is in distress and presses the button, the control and command centre won't get to know and necessary actions won't follow," a senior transport department official said.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), under the ministry of electronics and information technology, has developed a software application to monitor vehicles with tracking devices.

In January 2023, chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated a control and command centre in central Calcutta to monitor vehicles and receive emergency calls through panic buttons.

Sources in the transport department said close to a lakh-plus commercial vehicles of all categories have location tracking devices fitted to them.

For a little over a year now, a section of the owners have been complaining about the poor service of the companies manufacturing and selling these devices in Bengal.

Some alleged that the companies charged high fees for recharging the devices.

"The fees would vary between ₹3,000 and ₹4,000. After the device is recharged, several companies have no one to look into our complaints if the device starts malfunctioning," said Sudip Dutta, secretary of the Pool Car Owners Welfare Association.

"Once a device is sold, some of the companies don't receive calls from customers. As a result, many commercial vehicle owners have remained reluctant to recharge the tracking device," he said.

Senior police officers said that unless the device is fully functional, it won't be possible to respond to an alarm from a panic button.

"The idea is that as soon as a panic alarm goes off, officers will track the location of the vehicle, inform the nearest police station," a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

The state government has instructed companies manufacturing the devices to ensure that the recharge amount does not exceed ₹2,000.