The one-day statewide bandh in Kerala announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday left thousands of commuters stranded on both sides of the border.
The bandh call was given demanding ouster of Finance Minister of Kerala K.M. Mani from the government over a scandal in which he was accused of negotiating bribe from the bar owners in the wake of the Government’s decision to bring in prohibition. The bandh also was to demand the resignation of Chief Minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy.
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation officials said that everyday, a total of 34 buses are operated from Coimbatore Division — Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and The Nilgiris. Twenty-four buses were operated from Coimbatore (Ukkadam Bus Stand) to Palakkad, Guruvayur, Koduvayur and Thrissur and five from Pollachi. The rest are from other districts.
An equal number of buses are operated by the Kerala State Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to Coimbatore and to other destinations in Tamil Nadu. They claimed that the stoppage of service for 12 hours would have affected close to 15,000 commuters, especially those shuttling between Palakkad and Coimbatore on a daily basis for work.
In view of the bandh, the State Express Transport Corporation buses from Chennai and Salem to Ernakulam and Guruvayur halted at Coimbatore on Monday night. Officials said that bus services resumed in the evening. KSRTC operated only long distance buses to Tamil Nadu after the bandh ended. They added that more commuters would have been affected if the bandh was organised between Saturday and Monday.
