Several cases of attacks on private buses by protesters are being reported from Seemandhra region. However, the Telugu media, which is dominated by Seemandhra businessmen, is not reporting such incidents.
APSRTC buses are off the road in Seemandhra region since last 3 weeks due to employees strike. People are opting for private bus services to reach their destinations. Such passengers are facing severe hardships as these private buses are coming under attack from Seemandhra protesters. The buses are being stopped in the middle of the night due to protests and sometimes the routes are also changed abruptly.
Women passengers are having a real tough time with the protests in Seemandhra.
Sindhu, an employee returning to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam in a private bus, said: “After half an hour of travelling in the bus with seven passengers, the least I was expecting was a protest by drunk agitators. They stopped the bus, took away the keys and kept hurling abuses at the passengers. I sat glued to my seat.”
Another employee, Usha, when she was travelling to Trichy in a private bus, got scared when the bus was stopped in the middle of the night by student protesters.
“The protest on that day was supposed to begin at midnight, but they started it early and our bus was topped at 11.30 pm.” The sight of a large number of students and others protesting on the road was intimidating. Rajitha, who travelled in the same bus, said the driver, after the incident, started going at breakneck speed, “When we asked him to slow down, he responded rudely saying he needed to reach Trichy on time.”
[With inputs from: The New Indian Express]