Unauthorised driving schools play havoc
Unauthorised driving schools are endangering the lives of public with their unscientific training to citizens who approach them for lessons, particularly the light motor vehicle (LMV) driving.
Improper training makes unqualified drivers
Hyderabad: Unauthorised driving schools are endangering the lives of public with their unscientific training to citizens who approach them for lessons, particularly the light motor vehicle (LMV) driving.
Most of these driving schools do not follow the mandatory rules resulting in improper training. As a result, these candidates who are fresh from driving lessons are low on confidence when it comes to driving in real-time traffic.
According to official sources, there are about 500 driving schools in the state, including 300 in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. But, most of these schools do not have proper infrastructure, equipment or qualified instructors.
Based on the directions of the erstwhile High Court of Andhra Pradesh, the transport department issued guidelines for setting up driving schools a decade back. But in most of the cases, these driving schools never followed rules and are not even registered with government.
According to the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989, a trainer of any motor-driving school should posses a diploma in mechanical engineering and he should have a heavy motor vehicle licence with a badge. The driving school should have an exclusive classroom to teach proper driving methods, road rules and steps to be taken in case of an accident.
The trainees should be explained about the steps to be taken when the vehicle breaks down. There should be an instructor who is a qualified automobile engineer. As per rule 31 (4) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989, there is limit for providing training by a trainer.
In case of non-transport vehicles, the trainer can train only 22 candidates per month and in the case of transport vehicles the trainer should not train more than 11 people per month. The driving lessons should be first in open fields and then on roads with traffic.
However, many of the driving schools are not following rules and not even maintaining proper infrastructure. Most of the driving schools do not possess a driving school registration license and a school which has one license has been operating two to three schools illegally.
The trainees are taken on to the road on their first day of driving leaving the other motorists scared. The schools do not follow the limit of number of trainees and often end up training hundreds of them every month.
G Vinod Kumar, a pharmacist, said that most of the driving schools flourish because they offer easy driving licence once they complete the training. “Trainees feel comfortable taking a test in the driving school vehicle as there is a clandestine understanding between the driving schools and some RTA officials.
They collectively charge up to Rs 5,000 for getting training and also a driving licence,” said Vinod Kumar. "In the city, we find people getting their licence first and then understand how to drive," he added. The state government earlier had proposed to start driving
