Parents must select school vans carefully

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) yesterday warned parents of schoolchildren who travel by vans to ensure that an elderly women also travel along, in the vehicles.

Chairperson NCPA Anoma Diwssanayake made this observation following an incident that had taken place last week, where a-ten-year old girl was molested by the driver at a lonely place near Kollupitiya. At the time of the incident only the girl was inside the van.

Subsequently the driver had told the little girl to refrain from revealing the incident to her parents. However, her mother had made a complaint to the Police. The suspect was produced before the Colombo Fort Magistrate and remanded till April 5.

It was the fault of the parents for not arranging a safe van for children, not only for girls but also for boys, Dissanayake told the Sunday Observer.

She said if parents kept a close tab on the behaviour of van drivers and also ensured elderly women too travel along with their children, this kind of incident would have been averted.

According to statistics over 20,000 school vans operate all over the country.

She also accused majority of school van drivers of not obeying rules and regulations implemented by the Authority when transporting children.