Hours before voting began in Tamil Nadu for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 18 Assembly seats where bye-polls are being held, a scuffle broke out at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus in Koyambedu. While media reports alleged that the commuters were protesting the last-minute price hike, police denied the charge that they had resorted to lathi charge.
Speaking to TNM, local police officials said that the chaos was on account of outgoing buses being less in number. “There was a large crowd. They were boarding the buses outside the terminus and not allowing it to go in, so there was commotion. But it has already been cleared now.” said the police.
However, visuals showed police resorting to lathi charge. The scuffle at the terminus comes in the wake of large numbers of commuters being inconvenienced by travel delays on their way out of Chennai. Commuters, taking buses from the CMBT in Koyambedu faced delays extending up to three to four hours. Earlier in the day on Wednesday, transport officials informed TNM that no service extensions had been announced ahead of the polls in the state, contrary to many people’s expectations.
Commuters, who expect to travel back to their home towns to cast their ballot, were left stranded not just in Koyambedu but many bus points across the city.
“I booked the ticket for 10 pm bus ..still waiting for bus..no response from bus operator and Redbus,”(sic) wrote one Twitter user in the wee hours of Thursday.
I don’t have many followers ! Pls do talk about this now ! More than lakhs of people’s in Koyambedu busstand doesn’t have bus to go their native ! #வாழ்கஜனநாயகம் pic.twitter.com/e9TRHdBnWt
— Sago (சகோ) (@ComradEfrom) April 17, 2019
Just look at the situation in tambaram railway station. Looks like planned one to reduce the participation pic.twitter.com/lKqiGPhZ37
— Karthik (@karthi_2020) April 17, 2019
Police resort to mild lathi charge as the crowd in Koyembedu Bus stand protested against non availability of buses to various parts of the state and against high ticket fare. As no spl arrangements were made for ppl to commute, passengers left stranded.
#LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/3xxm1DU459— Mugilan Chandrakumar (@Mugilan__C) April 17, 2019
Given four day hoilday from today, huge crowd turned up in railway stations and bus stops to reach to their natives.
As the passengers couldn’t find buses even after long time, they sat in protest inside Koyembedu bus stop and held the outward buses. pic.twitter.com/vEYrM0hRXs
— Mugilan Chandrakumar (@Mugilan__C) April 17, 2019
Jagadeesh Lakshmanan, an associate with Cognizant Technology Solutions, who was waiting for a bus to Koyambedu from where he wanted to go to his home town Vellore to vote, told TNM that he got a bus at 10.45 pm and reached only at 11.40. The bus also got stuck in a traffic jam and passengers were asked to walk to a terminus around 300 metres away.
“There wasn’t even a single bus incoming. The ones that were already there were only getting overcrowded and were not starting yet. People made tough choices: waiting for some more time, return to where they came from, sit on bus rooftops,” says Jagadeesh. “There were tiny protests. Transportation officers were promising that the buses are stalled in traffic and they are on the way. Passengers were visibly furious and frustrated with all these. But there wasn’t anything that they could do,” he added.
Source: The News Minute