Thiruvananthapuram Corp demolishes ‘controversial’ bus shelter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bus shelter near  the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET) at Chavadimukku, Sreekaryam, in the capital, which had been in the eye of a storm after the local residents came out against the mixed seating arrangement for men and women, was demolished by  the civic body with the help of the police and works department on Friday. 

Mayor S Arya Rajendran said that a gender-neutral bus shelter will come up soon and it will be opened to the public within two weeks of the construction getting under way.“We will start the construction of the new gender-neutral bus shelter as soon as possible and it will be done through the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. Currently, the design of the new bus shelter is being readied.

Within two weeks of the construction getting started, it will be completed and thrown open to the public. The corporation was in talks with the works department since the bus shelter is part of the PWD road. I had constantly interacted with the works minister and the department issued an order to demolish it,” she said.

This bus shelter was recently renovated by the local residents’ association after removing the seats in the wake of male and female students sitting together. It had led to allegations of moral policing. Even after the Mayor ordered the construction of a new bus shelter, the Srikrishna Nagar Residents’ Association altered and renovated it. The residents’ association scribbled on the wall near the shelter that it was only a bus waiting area. 

The Mayor reached the spot on July 21 as student organisations protested against moral policing  by the residents’ association. But even 60 days on, no action was taken by the corporation to renovate the shelter. Following this, the residents’ association renovated the waiting shelter at a cost of Rs 8,500. The protest by the students after  the seats were removed  became a major talking point and a picture of the students sitting together went viral.  

Several political leaders, including General Education Minister V Sivankutty and Congress leader and CET alumnus K S Sabarinadhan, came out in support of the students.  After the incident became controversial, the Mayor came out with an explanation. Arya Rajendran  said that the waiting area had been illegally constructed by the works department.