Chennai: Bus route rivalry and violence attached with it is common among college students in the city. But on Thursday afternoon nearly 150 students armed with stones and sticks from ELM Fabricius Higher Secondary School at Purasawalkam gathered in front of M.Ct.M Higher Secondary School ,off Poonamalee High Road, to attack and settle a stand off between them on an MTC bus (route number 29 A) on Wednesday.
DC photographer Sampath’s timely intervention prevented a possible clash. Seeing the news photographer, who started asking the ELM school students why they were carrying stones and sticks, they started running away. “Yes there are problems between students of M.Ct.M and ELM for the last couple of days. We believe that it started over footboard travel on MTC bus 29-A. We even called the parents of six students on Thursday to tell them about the situation.
We thought everything was over. But suddenly we found nearly 150 students of ELM waiting outside our gate,” a representative of M.Ct.M school told this newspaper when contacted. He also said he would be talking to his ELM counterpart to sort the issue out. Some of the students were carrying wooden logs while some others had iron rods. A few others were having stones. Chaos in front of the school forced the staff of M.Ct.M school to come out and check. Only after the police chased away the ELM students, the M.Ct.M staff allowed their students to step outside.
DC lensman helps prevent clash
On Thursday afternoon I was on my way to an assignment. At Purasawalkam, I noticed a woman keenly watching a group of students armed with sticks and stones. This was opposite M.Ct.M Higher Secondary School. I walked up to them and asked why were they carrying sticks, wooden logs and stones. The students retorted that they were to play cricket.
The students in reality were waiting to beat students of the school. For the past one week, there had been a rivalry between students of the school and those of ELM Fabricius Higher Secondary School relating to using bus services on the route.
Sensing tension among the students, I clicked several pictures. By this action of mine, the students got intimidated and realised I was from the press. They started to disperse and while doing so they even threatened me with a stone. They also gestured to slap me. While moving they shouted at the school students saying, “come out we will beat you, we are waiting for you”.
I saw a majority of the public remaining passive spectators. Only one or two people responded to the situation. Then I stopped a police van and asked them to follow the group of boys, accompanying them on my two-wheeler. The police tried, but the boys escaped.
