Till recently, there was
this scenic passenger route – a 51 km track from Shengottai to Punalur that had started way back in 1873 and took 27 years
to complete. The first goods train ran in 1902 and passengers were on in 1904. The
passengers would have a breath taking view of Western Ghats as the
train passes through tunnels, the longest one being the one between
Bhagawathipuram and Aryankavu. The journey provided pristine view of wild life
sanctuary, captivating waterfalls, teak plantations, sandalwood plantations and
freshwater mangroves. Remember
that there was a movie in 1983 by name ‘Bhagavathipuram Railway gate’ starring
Thiagarajan (father of Prashanth) with stirring music by Illayaraja.
Cinema is
often interesting – there could be some illogical scenes, often they are only
exaggeration of what one sees in the Society. ‘whether Cinema influences the
Society, or whether it only reflects what happens in Society’ can be an
unending debate !!!.. One of
Kamal Hassan’s all time greats is ‘Indian’ [Hindusthani in Hindi; Bharatheeyudu
in Telegu] - directed by S. Shankar. Kamal did dual role of a brave soldier
Senapathy from INA who wants to set the corrupt society aright by handing out punishments
and the other Chandru, a small-time broker outside the RTO (Road Transport
Office) who gets people to high positions by accepting bribes and by crook
becomes a brake inspector. The corrupt
officer after being bribed renews Fitness for a rickety school bus which
has faulty brakes – the bus meets with a grave accident killing many children
and Chandru continues to bribe the officials trying to cover up. The
father Senapathy is bent on killing Chandru as a punishment. In the climax,
after a terrific chase, there is an explosion – in the epilogue, Senapathy
surfaces in a foreign land talking over phone to say that ‘there will not ever
be death for Indian’.
In July 2012, a little
innocent 6 year old of Mudichur had a premature end to her life, occasioned by
sheer negligence. The unfortunate girl slipped through a hole on the floor of
the school bus she was travelling and was run over by the rear wheel of the
same vehicle. As Sruthi was about to get down nearer her home, her little feet slipped into a gaping hole
right under the seat, into the road below and was run over. There were protests and mourning and slowly –
things were forgotten….
Now
a similar incident occurred at Punalur involving TN State transport bus,
fortunately, the victim survived miraculously with minor injuries – reports the
Hindu and many other newspapers.
A
woman had a miraculous escape as she fell through the hole in the wooden floor
of a moving Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus at Punalur in Kerala last
week. Reports state that even as the
TNSTC bus, proceeding from Tenkasi to Kottarakkara in Kerala, was slowly coming
out of the Punalur bus-stand , a portion of the wooden floor collapsed through
which a 30-year-old woman standing near the rear entrance of the vehicle fell
on the road. Though she escaped with minor injuries, the incident has brought
to light the pathetic condition of TNSTC buses.
When
a mishap of similar nature occurred at East Tambaram in Chennai, in which a
student travelling in a school bus was crushed to death, a huge outcry that
enveloped the State compelled the official machinery to initiate legal
proceedings against the Regional Transport Officer who had given fitness
certificate to the vehicle and the correspondent of the school. However, the
TNSTC administration here is not much bothered about this mishap. “The Branch
Manager (Tenkasi), Junior Engineer, superviser and the technicians concerned,
who should have ensured the operational worthiness of the vehicle, have been
placed under suspension. Moreover, the wooden floors of all buses in our fleet
will be checked within 24 hours,” Gajendran, GM, TNSTC (Tirunelveli), said.
When
asked about the allegation that the 50-mm wooden planks purchased for the floor
of all TNSTC buses inducted in the fleet of this division two years ago were of
poor quality, he denied it subtly, repeating that they would check the strength
of the wooden floors within 24 hours. General secretary of CITU-TNSTC ridiculed
the GM’s claim that the serious issue would be set right within 24 hours. “How
is it possible for him to complete this exercise as the division has more than
1,600 buses? More importantly, no quality spare including the wooden plank is
available here and hence completing the repairing work in all buses within 24
hours is not possible,” he said.
In
an another news, The Hindu reports that the Madurai Bench of the Madras High
Court directed the Collector and road transport authorities to check operation
of dilapidated buses by the TNSTC in Kanyakumari district a week ago, but the
transport corporation still continues to operate condemned buses, according to
president of Kanyakumari Zilla Consumer Protection Centre. The officials conducted checks and prevented
operation of a few of damaged buses, but the buses were again pressed into
service following the intervention of peoples’ representatives, it is stated.
The
TNSTC (Nagercoil region) is operating about 820 moffusil and town buses from 12
depots. At least 50 per cent of the buses were badly damaged or in a condemned
stage. Most of the town buses being operated in the region were condemned by
other TNSTC divisions; roof of most of the buses was leaking. . Recently, the
roof of a moving town bus was ripped off near Putheri due to heavy wind, said
students of DVD Higher Secondary School. When contacted, regional transport
authorities said that they had issued notices to two damaged buses in
Nagercoil. The buses were repaired by TNSTC authorities and they would be
produced before the RTO shortly. The other buses operated in the region were in
perfect condition, they claimed. TNSTC officials maintained that they were
undertaking repair works on buses at regular intervals.
Only
when some serious accidents occur, it hits the news and for a brief while,
officials are shaken ~many a times, things move on – though ‘all is not well’.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
23rd
Sept. 2015
Photos
credit : The Hindu.
No comments:
Post a Comment