Puttur: Puttur MLA Ashok Kumar Rai has expressed his strong anger against a KSRTC bus conductor who behaved inhumanly by harassing a small boy under the pretext of following rules. The MLA has directed the KSRTC officials to immediately suspend the conductor who took a class six student who boarded the wrong bus, miles away from the designated place, without stopping the bus despite his request.
The boy who boarded the wrong bus, what happened?
A boy, a resident of Mameshwar, Kambalabettu near Vittla, is studying in class 6 in a school in Vittla. This child, who was in a hurry to return home after finishing school like every day, boarded an express bus on the Kasaragod-Dharmasthala route at Vittla station, thinking it was an ordinary bus going to Puttur. Only after boarding the bus did the child realize that it was an express bus and that it would not stop at the Kambalabettu station where he was supposed to get off. Alarmed by this, the boy immediately went to the conductor and told him that he had boarded the wrong bus, and very humbly requested him to stop the bus as soon as it reached Kambalabettu and let him off.
Inhumanity in the name of rules!
As the bus approached Kambalabettu station, the boy once again asked the bus to stop. However, the conductor, forgetting humanity, insisted that it could not stop here since it was an express bus.
The conductor, who did not give the driver a signal to stop the bus, took the little boy to Kabaka Junction, which is quite far away, and dropped him off there. The boy, who got down alone in an unknown place and was distraught, somehow managed to call his parents and inform them about the incident. The panicked family members immediately rushed to Kabaka Junction and took the child, who was standing helplessly on the side of the road, home.
Outrage on social media, strict action by MLA
This irresponsible and cruel act of the KSRTC staff went viral on social media. “Even though it was an express bus, the driver, a small schoolboy, should have been the one who made the mistake. At least on the basis of humanity, the bus could have stopped and let the child down safely. Who is responsible if something happens to the child?” Netizens strongly condemned.
As soon as this serious matter came to the notice of MLA Ashok Kumar Rai, he immediately called the Puttur KSRTC Depot Manager and took him to task. The MLA, who is furious that such negligence regarding the safety of children cannot be tolerated, has ordered that the inhumane driver should be suspended with immediate effect and subjected to a departmental investigation.