West Bengal minister asks schools to scrap over-15-year-old unfit vehicles

A government official named Arjun Singh is in charge of transport in West Bengal, a state in India.

He spoke to reporters in a town called Darjeeling.

He told all schools that they must stop using vehicles that are more than 15 years old.

He said cars and buses that are very old and do not have paper certificates showing they are safe cannot be driven on the roads.

This rule applies even to private drivers who take children to school.

Schools also have to keep checking that their buses are safe to use.

The reason is that three school children died last year when the car carrying them lost control and fell into a pool.

The accident happened in a place called Bahira in the Uluberia area.

The minister also complained that the previous government did not do enough to fix this problem.