A day after a six-year-old boy died after being critically injured in a pool car accident, the ABVP on Sunday alleged "syndicate and cut money culture" have resulted in a pool car menace in West Bengal, endangering the lives of children.
The TMCP, students' wing of the ruling Trinamool Congress, said there should not be any politics over the death of a child.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) south Bengal unit secretary Suranjan Sarkar said in a statement that a sizeable number of school pool cars do not conform to safety standards and the organisation is planning to launch a movement if the administration did not address issues involving pool cars.
"They are emboldened by the syndicate and cut money culture practised by some people against whom the ruling establishment is taking no action," the statement said.
Syndicate' refers to a group of businessmen operating mainly in those areas of the state that are witnessing a realty boom. These businessmen allegedly force promoters and contractors to buy construction materials, often of inferior quality, at high prices.
Cut money is the cash political agents at the grassroot level allegedly take from beneficiaries of government schemes.
"We would like to know why the state transport department is not stopping ill-maintained, run-down vehicles which are plying as pool cars? Is this due to any nexus between the ruling party and those who are plying such ramshackle vehicles, having no fitness papers?" the ABVP statement said.
The AVBP, the students' wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also said the accident in Polba in which a student was killed and another critically injured, was an indicator about the "alarming traffic situation endangering safety of people."
The right wing students' unit threatened to launch a movement if issues like overloading in school pool cars, running poorly-maintained vehicles, flouting traffic regulations were not addressed by the administration at the earliest.
"It is not fair on the part of an organisation, that claims to represent the cause of students, to start blame game over the death of a six-year old which has caused immense grief among all sections of people. The ABVP may be doing this to be in the news," TMCP president Trinankur Bhattacharya said.
He told PTI that the TMCP demanded punishment of those responsible for such accidents as per law.
Rishabh Singh, a class 2 student who was severely injured after his pool car fell into a water-filled ditch in West Bengal's Hooghly district on Februrary 14 died in Kolkata on Saturday following an eight-day-long battle for life.
Rishabh Singh's friend Dibanshu Bhagat is under treatment at SSKM Hospital here and his condition is stated to be stable.
The pool car, carrying 14 students, fell into a water-filled ditch in Polba while rushing to a school in Chinsura.
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