Tamil Nadu

Demonstration by PMK cadres

METTUR: Pattali Makkal Katchi’s (PMK) Taramangalam MLA P. Kannaiyan, accompanied by cadres and general public, staged a demonstration in front of the depot of the State Transport Corporation here on Saturday, to demand safety for school students travelling in Government buses with free bus passes.

Earlier, they also took out a procession carrying the body of 14-year-old M. Selvakumar, a 9th Standard student of Government Higher Secondary School, Mecheri, who was killed in an accident when he ran along with a bunch of students to board a State Transport Corporation town bus on Friday evening.

As the bus was stopped a few yards away from the bus stop, the students ran to catch the bus.

But in the melee, Selvakumar, son of a peasant from a nearby village, fell and died.

Condemning the incident, Kannaiyan said that the tragedy could have been averted had the bus driver stopped the bus at the stop.

The MLA said that the students had claimed that a few bus drivers used to show utter disregard for the safety of the school children who possessed free bus passes.

Later the MLA met the officials of the transport corporation and urged them to ply more services at peak school hours to avoid the bunching of children at bus stops.

They were also told to sensitise the bus crew about the safety of school students.

Teachers should be deputed to organise the bus boarding in a regulated manner, it was pointed out.

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