MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday directed the State government to decide at the earliest to allow the people travel for free in the government buses from flood affected areas particularly from Chennai to other parts of Tamil Nadu.
The advocates Muthukrishnan and Rajagopal requested the division bench comprising justice V Ramasubramanian and N Kirubarakaran to direct the state government to allow the passengers stranded at Koyambedu bus terminus to travel for free in the government buses bounded to other districts. The advocates told the court that many people who have suffered huge lose in the flood at Chennai, doesn't have money to travel to their native places, said the advocates.
The Justice Ramasubramanian has asked the additional advocate general Chellapandi to get responses to the government and submit the report in the noon. When the case came up for hearing in the noon, Chellpandi submitted a report to the bench and explained that the government has been already holding a high level meeting to discuss on the flood relief today. The state transport secretary assured him that the issue would be taken up in the meeting, he said.
He further said that the government has already arranged 3000 buses for transporting the people from Chennai to other parts of the districts. However the advocates said that the government should ensure they don't charge money from the people. The advocate Rajagopal further said that people are forced to sent upto Rs 3000 to travel to the southern districts.
After listening to the arguments, the Judge directed the government to take steps to allow people for free at the earliest.