Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, private bus services held up

KOZHIKODE: Thousands of Keralites, including IT professionals, students and traders who had reserved seats in buses for Onam vacation, have been trapped in Bangalore due to the ongoing violent agitation unleashed in connection with the Cauvery water dispute. Over 39 KSRTC buses, including three Volvo buses and many private buses registered in the state, were held up in the Karnataka capital, according to KSRTC officials. Some of the buses which started from Bangalore packed with passengers were stopped at Mandya by the police due to safety reasons.

The Bangalore-bound buses from the state will end the services at Sulthan Bathery till further directions from the KSRTC higher officials. “For the passengers from the southern parts, it is easy to travel through Tamil Nadu. The border town Husur is only 40 kilometres,” said Vijayan Madakkimala, a KSRTC employee. “Most of the trouble-torn agrarian regions like Chennapattana, Mandya and Ramanagara are en route to Malabar making bus travel difficult on the route,” he added. “Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran said that moves were afoot to operate buses with police protection. But he expressed concern as the situation was volatile. However, the KSRTC management is hesitant to conduct services as any damage to the buses like hi-tech Scania would land the KSRTC in financial losses,” he said.

Sarangh Somnath, IT professional from Kozhikode, told DC from Bangalore that though he had booked ticket in a private bus paying more than Rs 2,000, there was no hope of celebrating Onam with his family members. “It was after a week’s struggle that I managed to get a bus ticket to Kozhikode from Bangalore which was booked for Monday night. I was supposed to reach my home on Tuesday morning,” he added.

Unfortunately all my advanced planning to celebrate Onam with my family has gone in vain due to the present law and order situation in Bangalore,” he said. Many students from the state have cancelled their trips and were advised to stay back in hostels. Maria Joseph from here, an MCJ student at Christ University, Bangalore, told DC that many of her friends had cancelled the journey. “We are also running short of provisions as the shops are closed,” she added. K.V. Ragesh, a technical writer in an MNC in Bangalore, said, “only by 8 p.m. I received a message from Kallada service operator informing me that today’s trip has been cancelled.”