The recent tragic accident of the bus mishap at Calvim- Aldona that took away the lives of the children and two elderly people has sent shocks waves throughout Goa. The parents have lost their children due to the irresponsible bus owner and the driver and conductor he had employed. Government Officials will act and after a certain amount of time passes by, everyone return to their daily routine and normal functioning; they will relax all the norms to accommodate every type of illegalities. As long their palms are greased everything becomes possible. 

In all the panic we find people reacting to the fact of the disaster management plan not being in place. This concept needs to be in place in every village; we need to train villagers with different rescue operation skills to cope with various unfortunate incidents that may happen in our villages; volunteers must come forward to learn about various methods that can be employed for rescue operations - the Government should encourage villagers and evolve a scheme to allow every citizen and school children learn about disaster management and rescue operation. In this way, many lives and properties can be saved. 

Some time back in the regional plan this concept was marked in the plan of our village of Siolim. We had people opposing it tooth and nail. But it was heartening to hear the people of Calvin questioning the Government’s disaster management plan being on paper but not being implemented practical. Disasters can be of any type, but we need to be ready to tackle it effectively.

I fear for the Department of Social Welfare which has distributed many school buses. They need to check and verify that all the drivers and conductors are first briefed on how to drive the school bus safely. Some time the students are seated in the cabin. The RTO should enforce the installation of speed governors in all school buses. The photographs of the bus driver and conductor should be displayed in the buses to enable the students to know who they are. There is every possibility that the conductor is trying to sharpen his driving skills which could lead to disaster, the kind of which happened at Calvin. Students should be asked to report any over speeding, who is driving and if any one of them indulging in child abuse, they should be reported to the concerned headmasters. Proper uniforms with badges should be worn by the driver and conductor. I appeal to the all concerned Government Departments - of Social Welfare, Traffic Police Education Cell, RTO and school management to come together immediately and form various village panchayat and school level road safety committees to have a workshop on road safety.