Students, parents protest delay in bus service, stage road roko

Coimbatore: A section of students from Nallurpalayam near Sulur and their parents staged a road roko on Monday, demanding frequent bus services to their village and existing buses to keep their timings.
The students sat on the main road in the village, bringing traffic to a halt for nearly 30 minutes. Blaming the bus timings, they said they were always late to school.
The protesters also detained two government buses and refused to let them go. They demanded the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to increase the frequency of bus services to Nallurpalayam and address the problems faced by the villagers.
A protester said, “Buses are arriving in the village late by one hour. Hence, the students reach their schools late. We have represented this issue with the authorities, but in vain. Therefore, we are forced to stage the road roko to draw the officials’ attention to the issue and find a solution at the earliest.”
On hearing about the road roko, police and revenue department officials reached the spot and held talks with the protesters. The villagers withdrew the protest after the officials assured that they would do the needful to improve the bus services to the village.
When contacted, a senior TNSTC official in the district said they were operating eight buses through the village. “The buses take different routes to pick up students and hence the delay. We will take steps to improve the bus services to Nallurpalayam.”