It was the common man’s burden yet again as the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the BJP in Kerala in protest against the murder of RSS activist Rajesh Edavakode in Thiruvananthapuram started at 6 am.
BJP workers took out protest marches at various places across the state. Scores of commuters and long-distance passengers were stranded at railway stations and bus stands.
Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses kept off the roads, plunging passengers to further hardships. Hundreds of people who landed up in the capital in overnight trains and buses to go to the Regional Cancer Centre and the Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, an advanced neuro and cardiac care facility, were at the receiving end of the hartal. Good samaritan volunteers, on two-wheelers and cars, offered free rides to those in need in the capital.
The police stepped up vigil in the backdrop of the volatile situation. Special pickets were set up in sensitive areas and general patrolling intensified.
BJP supporters threw stones at a KSRTC volvo bus coming from Bengaluru in Kollam. The driver was injured in the attack. The bus supposed to reach Thiruvananathapuram stopped ended its service in Kollam after this. All the 30 passengers got off in Kollam.
