With police escort, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation operated its bus services to and from the Union Territory of Puducherry as well as to other destinations via Puducherry.
The bus services could thus be operated without any disruption owing to a better coordination between the Tamil Nadu and territorial police. They worked in tandem to escort the buses without any difficulty in their respective territories.
The State Transport Corporation sources told The Hindu that since the opposition parties in Puducherry had called a bandh for Wednesday, such a precautionary measure had been taken to give protection to the travelling public and to the bus crew.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its allies such as the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised a day-long bandh in Puducherry, demanding the recall of Lieutenant Governor Iqbal Singh for his alleged links with Hasan Ali Khan, who is now in the Central Bureau of Investigation for money laundering charges.
When Mr. Singh was a Rajya Sabha MP, he reportedly recommended the expeditious issuance of passport to Hasan Ali Khan. The regular commuters to Puducherry felt relieved by the uninterrupted services provided by the State Transport Corporation.
Since Puducherry has a peculiar boundary demarcation that interjects intermittently into Cuddalore and Villupuram districts, it had been necessitated for the Tamil Nadu police to escort the buses up to the Puducherry boundary and from there their territorial counterparts took over and vice-versa.
Such a reciprocity between the police personnel of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry was noticed at Kanniyakoil (Cuddalore-Puducherry boundary), Madakadipattu (Villupuram-Puducherry boundary), and, near Marakkanam on the East Coast Road and on the Tindivanam-Puducherry road (for the buses that had to ply through Puducherry from Chennai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpet to farther destinations such as Chidambaram, Sirkazhi, Kumbakonam and Thanjavur).
However, the private operators, anticipating problem, withdrew their bus services for the day. Therefore, to meet the increased demand the State Transport Corporation pressed into service additional buses to Puducherry.
The uninterrupted bus services came as a great relief to the regular commuters, such as traders, industrialists, students and patients.
