RTC parades damaged buses

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR, JULY 1. The Guntur region of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) organised a rally of the damaged buses. Almost a dozen buses moved in a single line solemnly with the Executive Director of the Satavahana region of the RTC, Mr. A. Harinarayana Bhaktha, and officials of the corporation marching ahead.

While 12 buses were completely burnt, another 18 buses were damaged by miscreants on June 25 following a bomb blast in a mosque. The RTC staff drove the damaged and burnt buses on the roads in procession. The procession, which began at the NTR bus station complex, passed through the main roads - Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) office, AC College, Sankara Vilas Centre, Lodge Centre, Koritepadu, Vidyanagar, Gujjanagundla, Swamy theatre, Kankaragunta Gate, District Collectorate - and ended at the bus station again.

Pamphlets prepared as if the buses were directly speaking to the people and expressing its grief were distributed to people. The contents in the pamphlet took exception to the agitators directing their ire on the bus station. The RTC is taking 1.2 crore passengers everyday with its 19,000 fleet.

``Is RTC bus or bus-station responsible for the unsavoury incidents in Guntur on June 25? Yet, it lost property worth Rs. 2 crores. Should the RTC buses fall prey to the communal tensions, students' agitation and political agitations? Don't you have sympathy for the bus that is carrying you everyday? If you set the bus ablaze and wait for a bus everyday, can it come on time? We do not cut the branch on which we are sitting. How far is it justified to burn the buses in which you travel everyday? If RTC property is destroyed, the corporation will have to levy a heavy burden on the people to recoup the losses. The entire State would have to bear the burden for the loss caused by a few miscreants.

``It is unjust to attack the RTC buses on June 23 in Vijayawada during the agitation organised in protest against the hike in power tariff. Even in the communal violence in Hyderabad, the buses were the first target. Buses are the first to be torched even by naxalites. In the last five years, 864 buses were damaged and 252 buses were burnt causing a loss of Rs. 23 crores.''

Some of the appealing slogans with a personal touch, also printed in the pamphlets, included: ``My life is to strive for the sake of people - is it just to make me a scape goat?'' ``I am the `aya' who takes your children to school - I am falling prey to your merciless behaviour, I do not know any caste, religion or politics except carrying you.''

The parading of the damaged buses through the 12-km-long ring road in Guntur evoked a sensational response from the people who cursed those who destroyed the buses.

The Deputy Chief Traffic Manager (Guntur), Mr. P. V. Rama Rao, the Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer, Mr. R. Gangadhar, participated in the rally.

The APSRTC was the worst sufferer in the violence that ensued the bomb blast in the Markaz mosque. The RTC staff, who were on duty at the time of attack by miscreants, offered a stiff resistance to the attempt to destroy the buses. However, they could not control the mobs when the miscreants trouped into the bus station complex. While the RTC could register its protest by parading the ``naked'' buses, the vendors and owners of various stalls, whose establishments were ransacked and torched, could not do so fearing a threat.

The woes of the women passengers in the bus station at the time of attack, however, did not get highlighted nor was there anybody to come to their rescue. Total chaos reigned supreme on the premises of the beautiful NTR bus station on that fateful night.

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