The police cracked the whip on college students, who attempted to celebrate bus day in the past two days and put motorists in the city to hardship.
On Monday, a group of students of Pachaiyappa’s College were thwarted by the police while on Tuesday, 12 students were arrested for a similar offense.
With the Madras High Court’s ban on bus day still in place, some city college students’ attempts at on-road celebration in the last few days were stalled by the heavy presence of the police.
On Tuesday afternoon, a group of students of the Pachaiyappa’s College on Poonamallee High Road intercepted an MTC bus (route number 15B) on Taylors Road, tied a banner and tried to take over the vehicle. Panicked members of the public alerted the police control room and a team from the Kilpauk police station rushed to the spot. While some of the students fled, 12 of the revellers were arrested and later released in the evening, the police said.
However, students of the college are agitated over them not being allowed to celebrate bus day while a rival college in Nandanam recently celebrated the day. “We don’t have a college fest or sports day. This is our only celebration towards the end of our final year in college. It is really harsh to ban it,” said a student of Pachaiyappa’s College.
Student Federation of India activist P. Ravi, who passed out last year from the college, said that, in the Taylors Road incident, police attacked innocent students. “Most of them who were assaulted by the police were not involved in the celebration. We have planned to protest against the actions of the police,” he said.
However, members of the public are not in support of bus day and say that the celebration is a nuisance. “When a bus day celebration comes near my shop, I hurriedly pull down the shutter. I have previous experience of students robbing items from the shop,” said Faizal who owns a petty shop on Sterling Road in Nungambakkam.
A bus commuter Sarala Kumari of Anna Nagar said it provided students with an opportunity to misbehave with women passengers.
City police teams are on alert to prevent celebrations by students on city roads. Large posses of policemen are posted outside some of the colleges and spots that are identified as areas were students could carry out the banned celebration.
Keywords: bus day celebrations, Pachaiyappa’s College
WoW, that was one hell of a thought by Mr.V.Kannan. I really hope The Hindu can look in to this and forward Mr.Kannan's thought to Transport ministry.
Don't they have anything better than this to do. Many pupil hanging, travelling on the roof. How the govt and the police allowing this. Is this not a crime to be punished. These students should be put in jail for sometime. The driver who drives the vehicle should also be punished.
It is surprising to know, after the court intervention also, there is no
strict measure taken by the enforcement authorities. I think here also
political plays. The common man is facing lot of nuisance from the Arts
& science college students in the city every year. Now it becomes a
festival of college students.
By taking strong action against those incidents, the people can believe
that somehow the system is functioning !!!
This is shocking. I am not referring to the students on the roof of
the bus, I am referring to the criminal over design of the bus roof
structure that can easily withstand 57 students on its roof. ( yes ,
I counted them ). Taking an average weight of 60 kg per student the
roof is withstanding a total weight of 3400 kg,ie 3.4 tonnes.Imagine
the amount of unnecessary reinforcement(= more dead weight of the bus
). what is the need for the city transport bus to have this amount of
self weight?. Car manufactures all over the world are overworking
their guts out to reduce each gram off the vehicle to reduce fuel
consumption... and here we have this scenario. No wonder we are
leaking fuel all over the country ! what is the use of all these
IITs, IIMs,IISc ?
It would be better to bring to an end the bus day celebrations for now
and forever. This is the most unruly, uncivilized and unproductive
celebration ever celebrated on this planet. What benefits have been
derived from such celebrations besides creating inconsiderate and
indiscipline students climbing and hanging over buses in hundreds,
causing public nuisance and causing losses to public properties.
Instead of draining the youth's energy for all wrong reasons in the
name of bus day celebration, the day can be turned into a green day
celebration where all college students can plant each a tree, or adopt
and clean a street or collect used clothes prior to the celebration
from public and redistribute them to very poor families. The civil
engineering students can rebuild or resurface the rain leaking homes
of the poorer lot. I most earnestly request the mayor or the collector
of the city do the needful to turn the bus day into green day
celebration.
Bus day has never made sense and still doesn't. It is likely these students don't have anything better to do but why bus day? Why not sing a drunken group song like they do in the movies?
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