Syndicate, cut money culture resulting in pool car menace in

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."