Hundreds pay homage to Shruthi, RTO suspended

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A day after her violent death, six-year-old Shruthi has become a symbol of public outrage. Several hundreds of people — a few who personally knew the little girl’s family and hundreds of others; strangers stirred by the tragedy — took out a silent procession from Mudichur road to the child’s home, where each of them paid their respects to the small bundle of her remains, preserved in an ice-box.

The silence however, could not conceal their seething anger towards the failure of the system—the failure to ensure that their children and loved ones get home safe everyday.

Meanwhile, the RTO and the motor vehicle inspector were suspended on Thursday. Late in the evening, MV inspector Rajasekhar was arrested.

While little Shruthi was bid farewell in a public funeral, another heart wrenching irony came to light Thursday—her father, Sethu Madhavan, a schoolbus driver himself was on his evening rounds when he heard that his daughter was critically injured.

Strangers from all corners of the city arrived at the residence of Sethu Madhavan in Mudichur, to lay wreaths and garlands on the coffin carrying little Shruthi. Youths in the area pasted condolence notices with Shruthi’s photograph on every available wall and lamppost in the locality.

Relatives and neighbours broke down at the coffin, while strangers expressed anger and grief-– anger against the school that allegedly charged each student Rs10,000 per year just for the school bus service, anger against the RTO who had overlooked the gaping hole in the floor of the bus and issued it a fitness certificate. There was also palpable disappointment that the government often springs action only after a tragedy strikes.

Shruthi’s parents Sethu Madhavan and Priya doted on their little girl. She was considered ‘the genius’ of the family. The couple have an older son, ten-year-old Pranav, who studies at a smaller mission school in the same area.

“Shruthi was different—she could talk nineteen to the dozen, came first in all her subjects and had been learning Bharathanatiyam since age 3. Her father had a lot of aspirations for her, and even though he could barely afford it, he insisted on sending her to Zion Matriculation, where the children of most upper middle class residents of Tambaram go to,” said a weeping relative.

Madhavan , a native of Palghat, came to Chennai six years ago, to drive an autorikshaw. He gradually managed to save money to buy a van to ferry school children.

State cracks whip on RTO, MVI

The state government on Thursday suspended RTO Pattabasamy and motor vehicle inspector Rajasekar following the accident that claimed the life of a class 2 girl. In the evening, Selaiyur police arrested MVI Rajasekar. Transport officials said 184 school vehicles had been detained for not possessing valid documents and 2,465 cases registered against school vehicles for overloading in the last 11 months.

Explaining that there has been an intensive drive pertaining to school vehicles, a senior official said, “Actions had been initiated against drivers of 629 school vehicles after they were found to be not in possession of driving licenses, while 184 vehicles without fitness certificates (FC) had been detained for not having valid permit, besides FCs of 144 school vehicles cancelled.” He added that a state-level meeting of RTOs has been arranged in secretariat on Friday.

Meanwhile, the district administration has launched an inquiry into the alleged irregularity that the school van involved in the accident was given a fitness certificate though it was not roadworthy, sources in the department said.

In a related development, Dr N. Vijayan, correspondent of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School, the owner, the driver and helper of the bus, arrested on Wednesday night, were remanded to judicial custody.

Police said a case under manslaughter not amounting to murder has been registered. Earlier in the day, Mudicher residents voiced their anger against ‘corrupt’ officials.

Officials, school authorities told to appear before court

Taking suo motu note of the death of a six-year-old girl student, who was crushed under the wheels of the school bus, which was taking her back home, after she slipped through a hole in the floor of the vehicle, the Madras high court on Thursday directed transport officials and the school authorities to be present in the court on Friday.

In its order, a division bench comprising Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said a very pathetic news item had been published in almost all the newspapers about the death of a six-year-old girl student who was crushed under the wheels of the school bus.

The deceased girl, who was a class 2 student in Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School died on the spot. The floor of the bus caved in near the sixth row, opening a wide hole through which the girl fell before being crushed under the rear wheels of the vehicle.

“It is very unfortunate to see the news item that the bus was given clearance of road worthiness just 15 days earlier, by the Regional Transport Office. The matter is taken suo motu notice by this court. The school authorities, the transport officials and the officers who certified the road worthiness of the bus are directed to appear in person before this court tomorrow at 10.30 am. The advocate general is directed to contact the officers concerned and ask them to be present along with the stand that they may take,” the bench added.

Jayalalithaa tells officials to take stringent action

Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa directed the police and the school education department officials to take stringent action against those responsible for the death of a class 2 student who fell through a gaping hole on floor of the bus and was run over by wheels on Tambaram-Mudichur Road on Wednesday.

Expressing shock and grief over the death of Shruthi Jayalalithaa announced a compensation of Rs1 lakh to the girl’s family from the CM’s Public Relief Fund.

She expressed her heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. According to an official release here on Thursday, Jayalalithaa directed the police and school education department officials to take punitive action on those responsible for leasing out a damaged vehicle to operate as a school bus.