School fee for BEST bus upsets parents

Anahita Mukherji | tnn

Mumbai: Parents of Borivli’s Don Bosco High School are up in arms against the school management for charging them 45% more on the dedicated BEST school bus service than what the undertaking itself charges.

Don Bosco is one of the schools that has subscribed to the scheme, which provides for a dedicated BEST bus for school students. BEST will charge Rs 166 a month and Rs 497 for a quarter for the bus pass, which works out to Rs 1,657 for the ten working moths of the year. However, the school is charging students Rs 2,400 for the scheme, which works out to a profit of Rs 743 per child.

Last year, the BEST rates were Rs 65 per month, which added up to a total of Rs 650 for the 10 months that students went to school. The school, however, charged students Rs 1,100.

“This is totally unfair. Not only has the school doubled the fee for the BEST bus route this year, but the fee that it has charged is also far more than what BEST itself charges,’’ said a parent.

“Another parent who accompanied me to the principal’s office said she could not afford the increase in the bus fee. She was told to discontinue the service,’’ the parent added.

Another parent who told the principal that his child would fend for himself if he missed the school bus was informed that he would still have to pay the additional amount.

When the parent said he would look at the possibility of charging the card himself, he was told that his child would not be allowed to use the dedicated bus service. “Why should I be denied the dedicated bus service when I am ready to pay the BEST what it charges?” he asked.

When this reporter spoke to Rossi D’Souza—a school staffer in charge of collecting money for the bus service and swiping the BEST smart card for the buses—he said the additional money collected by the institute was in case a student missed the bus. “If any student misses the bus, we will use the extra money to arrange for outside buses for the student,’’ said D’Souza. Parents, however, said they had never heard of this before.

D’Souza confirmed that he had heard complaints from parents over the issue. “If they don’t want the service, we can withdraw it,’’ he said. The principal was unavailable for comment.

BEST PRO A S Tamboli said he would look into the matter.