Starting Thursday, drivers of over 3,500 school rickshaws and over 5,000 school vans will go on an indefinite strike, said sources in the Amdavad School Vardhi Association. They are demanding that the annual process of 'repassing' of these vehicles be expedited. Following a road mishap on Monday, in which three students fell from a moving van, Road Transport Office (RTO) officials and the police have begun a crackdown on rickshaws and vans ferrying school students. The association alleged that the crackdown is indiscriminate, resulting in unfair fines. Speaking to DNA, Dilip Joshi, secretary of Amdavad School Vardhi Association said that they have to get their vehicles 'repassed' every year by the RTO, without which they cannot operate legally. "The repassing is mainly to ensure that the vehicle is safe to ferry students. However, many of the requirements are contradictory and if we attempt to comply with one, we will automatically violate others. This causes crackdown on such vehicles. Authorities have begun a drive and are charging the drivers fines. In this condition, we cannot operate. We are not in favour of a strike but we have no course left," said Joshi. School van drivers in Vadodara are already on strike. Now, their brethren in Ahmedabad are also joining in. They say that they are against illegal ferrying of students in vans but also that the government should enable drivers to operate in a legal manner. "We support action against the driver who ferried the students illegally. We cannot tolerate a case where students fall from a moving van. That driver is not even a member of our association," Joshi added.

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