By Violet Pereira, Team Mangalorean

Mangalore :  The residents of Ambla Mogeru, Kuthar staged a protest by blocking the road and stopped city buses on route number 44 plying from Mangalore to Elyarpadavu here on July 16.

Speaking to Mangalorean.com the DYFI Ambla Mogeru, Zone President Ibhrahim said that the route 44 bus plying from Mangalore at its stop at Madaka is occupied by school children leaving no empty seats for others. More than 50 students travel to school by sitting on top of the bus. Recently one boy had a fall from the bus due to overloading of passengers.

He further said that when the bus reaches the last stop, it is already full with students and the daily bus commuters can't find any seats empty to sit. We have informed the issue to RTO Mallikarjuna 15 days ago and requested for additional bus for that route, which can avoid the children sitting on the roof top and travelling to school.  But there was no response from the RTO. 

Without proper response from the concerned authorities, the residents of Ambla Mogeru, protested at Madaka and did not allow the students to board the bus. Today July 16 all the school and college students did not attend their classes because of the protest by the residents He also stated that the people from the locality met the police commissioner, who assured to look into the matter.  On July 16, a KSRTC bus was sent by the RTO to the Ambla Mogeru route at 10a.m. where as additional bus is required at 8 am specially for the school children to reach school/college in time.

Speaking to our correspondent about the residents demand for additional bus, RTO Mallikarjuna said, "I will send the inspector to the spot tomorrow July 17 to study the exact problem of the residents and find a permanent solution.  We have already given permit to one KSRTC bus to ply on that route, and today July 16 the bus has already started plying on the route".  He also said that public should understand the problems of the students and adjust with the situation. The public in that area is not ready to co-operate and has no concern about the students, then how can the authorities handle this issue? he questioned.

While asked, how the authority will take care of the students who are travelling to school by sitting on the top.  Mallikarjuna said, "I never knew that more than 50 students travel to school by sitting on the top of the bus".  The KSRTC bus will ply twice in this route everyday and it will help the students to travel to school, he opined.  Mallikarjuna assured to solve the problem as soon as possible.