KRISHNAGIRI: Over 40 school students from Moongilpatti village near Rayakottai are forced to walk for four kilometres to school in Poovathi village due to lack of bus service. Moongilpatti in Chikkpoovathi panchayat has over 100 Adi Dravidar families, but there is no bus service from the village in the mornings.
S Govindaraj (28), a private bus conductor and resident of the village, said, “A decade ago, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) operated a bus service to the village from Krishnagiri in the mornings, but it was stopped. Now, we have bus service only in the evenings.”
“Due to lack of transportation, students and elders walk for four kilometres to nearby Poovathi village. In the evening, they get bus at around 4.30 and reach Moongilpatti within 20 minutes. Authorities should operate buses to our village in the mornings also,” he added.
A class 10 student of Moongilpatti said, “ We only have a primary school in the village and have to go to Poovathi and Aalapatti or Rayakottai for higher studies. We have to walk for four kilometres to reach Poovathi.”
When contacted, TNSTC Dharmapuri, deputy manager ( commercial), N Harsha Babu, said he would check the feasibility of resuming the morning bus service to Moongilpatti.