Mangaluru: School vans and autorickshaws ferrying students in the city will have to drop them inside the school premises without making them alight or board on roadside from November 15. Schools should allow these vehicles into their premises. Vehicles exclusively transporting children should be painted in yellow and display the board ‘on school duty’.

The city police want the school managements to adhere with these guidelines prescribed by the Supreme Court. “If they fail to do it, the police will start booking cases from next Tuesday,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic) M. Sanjeev Patil said here on Tuesday.

At a meeting of headmasters and other representatives of schools from Mangaluru North block on Tuesday, he said that it was in the interest of students that the guidelines had been framed. It was mandatory for the schools to follow them. If any of them failed to do so, the head of the institution would have to face legal consequences. Mr. Patil asked the school managements to submit a compliance report by November 14.

Mr. Patil said each school should have a school cab committee comprising representatives of teachers, drivers and parents. The vans and autorickshaws, which exclusively deal with transportation of schoolchildren, should be painted yellow. These vehicles should display ‘on school duty’ board. No vehicles would be allowed to park by the roadside.

Mr. Patil said that each school should nominate a staff member as a nodal officer who would be in touch with the police. Messages to avoid certain roads during traffic gridlocks and precautionary measures to be taken during protests and unrest would be directly sent by the police to these nodal officers.

They would also facilitate interaction of the police with students once every fortnight.

When a headmistress sought policemen to regulate traffic movement during the opening and closing of school hours, Mr. Patil said it would be difficult to post men at 500 odd schools in the city. Instead, they were ready to train staff members as traffic wardens, who could regulate traffic movement near schools.

Mr. Patil asked all the schools to install closed-circuit television cameras in the open area and other parts of the school. He also asked them to compulsorily display outside the school boards barring sale of cigarette and other tobacco products within a 100- metre radius.