Trips to Coimbatore turn tough for KSRTC

PLAKKAD:  The KSRTC buses from the Palakkad depot called off their services to Coimbatore around noon on Friday following the roughing up of a conductor by the people assisted by the police at Kovaipudur near Coimbatore.The KSRTC buses later resumed services at 6.15 pm following talks between KSRTC officials and their counterparts in Coimbatore. It was agreed that steps will be taken to provide protection to buses by the police on either side of the border.Ever since the Mullaperiyar issue, an uneasy calm has been prevailing on the Palakkad-Coimbatore border. “While the buses of the Tamil Nadu Transport Corporation were conducting their services smoothly, the KSRTC buses from the Kerala side were being sent in convoys causing huge loss. For the last 10 days, the KSRTC buses from the Palakkad depot have been going to Coimbatore in convoys. Even Keralites were not boarding the KSRTC buses after some miscreants threw stones at the buses near Coimbatore last week,” the KSRTC officials in the Palakkad depot said.A total of 40 services were operating from the Kerala side to Tamil Nadu, of which 22 services were from the Palakkad depot. The KSRTC officials said that there will be passengers only if the buses ply at regular intervals. For the past 10 days, the KSRTC buses were plying as a ritual incurring huge loss.“On Friday, the driver of a KSRTC bus Mohammed Farook stopped the bus at Kovaipudur when a woman passenger on the road waived to stop the bus. Some irate passengers pounced on the driver saying that the bus after leaving Ukkadam in Coimbatore should stop only at Walayar and not in between. The passengers pulled the shirt of the driver. Later, three policemen got into the bus and began to hurl abuses on the driver,” said Krishnan, a passenger in the bus.He said that it was the timely intervention of a Kerala High Court advocate P C Chacko which helped save the driver. He said that the local were picking up petty quarrels with the crew of KSRTC buses ever since the Mullaperiyar issue broke out. The crew members of the KSRTC buses here said they would ply only if adequate protection is given to them, the KSRTC officials said.