KSRTC CMD seeks report on girl’s plight
KSRTC chairman and managing director A. Hemchandran on Sunday sought a report from executive director M.T. Sukumaran on the complaint that a bus refused to stop even after a girl passenger requested the conductor to stop it at the stop near her house at 2 am on Saturday.
The allegation was against the conductor of the night rider ‘Minnal’service which had designated stops at Kazhakuttam, Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Vytilla hub, Angamaly, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Payannur before reaching Kasaragod.
The general rule of the KSRTC has been that buses had to be stopped at any place of request during odd hours but the KSRTC has issued an order exempting Minnal service from the rule. The conducted is learnt to have given an explanation based on this exemption.
The series of events started when the girl who boarded the bus from Pala on her way back home asked for a stop bus at a place near her house in Payyoli. The student, who had earlier booked the ticket to Kozhikode, had extended it to Kannur, the next stop.
The conductor refused to stop the bus at Payyoli despite her request saying that the bus was a special category service.
Meanwhile, the police which was alerted by the parents of the girl followed the bus and asked the driver to stop the bus at Payyoli town and Murad bridge but the driver refused to do so. Finally, it stopped at Chempola Kunjipally, about 24 kilometres from Payyoli, after the police jeep overtook it. Later, the girl went home with her father who arrived in another bus.
