COIMBATORE TIRUCHI RAMANATHAPURAM THOOTHUKUDI:The bus fare hike effected by the Tamil Nadu government on the midnight of January 19, which took passengers off guard, continued to provoke a spate of protests across the state on Monday. Particularly, the issue saw students, mostly women, raising the banner of revolt in streets and on social media sites such as WhatsApp.
WhatsApp campaign
In Coimbatore, a WhatsApp campaign a la the jallikattu protest, asked the students to congregate under one umbrella and protest the bus fare hike.Hundreds of private college students including women took out a rally near Kovaipudhu, while many organisations affiliated to political parties also staged protests against State government.Stating that they would not indulge in any activities that disturbed the public, N Dinesh Raja, district president of the Student Federation of India (SFI), said that the protest might become stronger in a few days, if the government failed to respond. “Like jallikattu protests, the students would assemble massively at VOC Park, if needed,” he added.
Brawls with conductors
In Tiruchy, students, especially those from rural pockets, are facing the brunt of the bus fare hike.
With their passes not valid in private buses, many students are forced to wait for government buses or shell out more money to commute. Even in the case of government buses, there were complaints of conductors asking the students for additional charge, resulting in heated exchanges. Commuters of mini-buses, mostly handled by private operators, are the worst affected.To highlight their plight, students staged a protest across the central districts on Monday demanding rollback of the fare hike.
More than three-fourth of the students of Periyar EVR College and other aided colleges in Tiruchy city are from the underprivileged sections.
TMC calls for Jan 29 protest
The Tamil Maanila Congress will stage a statewide protest against the bus fare hike. Speaking to presspersons in Ramanathapuram on Monday, the party’s youth wing state president M Yuvaraja said that his party would stage a state-wide protest on January 29. “Due to the fare hike announced by the Tamil Nadu government, the poor people are suffering a lot. On the other hand, the State has increased salaries for MLAs. Instead of hiking the bus fare, the government should have taken an alternate decision to resolve the administrative flaws in Transport department by which a reasonable outcome could have been gained,” he said, adding that Ramanathapuram east district secretary A Ramavanni would lead the protest in district,” said Yuvaraja.
‘Using cycles, bullock carts’
The government should take steps to reduce the bus fare for the benefit of the public, said Arjun Sampath, president, Hindu Makkal Katchi, in Dindigul on Monday.The HMK president said that the government buses were not being properly maintained and the bus fare hike was giving hard times to the people. He pointed out that due to the rise in bus fare, the people were forced to use cycle and bullock carts.
Students block NH in Tiruchy
Nearly 200 students of Urumu Dhanalakshmi College (UDC) in Tiruchi boycotted first-hour classes and squatted on the Tiruchy-Thanjavur National Highway on Monday, demanding rollback of the hike. As a result, hundreds of vehicles and a number of buses came to a standstill. After police appeared on the scene, the students dispersed and normalcy was restored.
Man surrenders voter’s ID
A 38-year-old man from Chennai living in Coimbatore found a novel way to protest against the recent bus fare hike. N Sai Ganesh surrendered his voter’s ID to District Collector TN Hariharan.
“I work in a private firm and I used to ride a bike to work. Recently I shifted to public transport. Earlier I had to pay `16 for travelling to my office near Town Hall by bus and now I have to shell out double the amount. I have surrendered my voter ID, which I have used to vote more than five times to protest against the unfair hike. They could have increased it even by 50 per cent; but this is atrocious,” he says.
The Collector has accepted his petition as well as the voter ID.