Four staff, 6 others held for attacks during ongoing state-wide transport strike

On the day when most bus drivers went on strike, a social activist volunteered to drive the buses and successfully completed six rounds on Saturday. V Muthupandi, an entrepreneur from Madurai, had expressed interest to drive the buses for TNSTC during the strike on Friday. However, he was called on Saturday morning. He had gone to bus depot at Ponmeni and was allotted the Ellis Nagar bus depot. Following that he took the bus from Ellis Nagar to Periyar bus stand and from Periyar bus stand he took trips to Mattuthavani bus stand, Meenakshi Amman Temple, Arapalayam, Thirumangalam and Anupanadi. Speaking to DT NEXT, Muthupandi said that he was determined to help stranded passengers on the day of bus strike and as he had previous experience of driving heavy vehicles he was given the bus by the officials. He finished six full rounds and carried 398 passengers in total.

A TNSTC bus driven by a school bus driver ran amokon the main roads of Tiruverumbur and hit a private bus and a car on Saturday. Fortunately, the passengers escaped with minor injuries. It is said, Arumugam (38), a driver of a matriculation school in Tiruverumbur, was asked to drive a TNSTC bus bound from Chathiram bus stand to Sooriyur as a temporary driver, since the transport employees were on strike. When the bus was nearing T-Nagar near Tiruverumbur, Arumugam lost control after negotiating a private bus and soon, the bus hit the private bus and halted after ramming a car. Soon, the vehicles following the bus were stopped for safety. Fortunately, the occupants of the car, passengers of both the buses escaped with minor injuries. When police arrived, Arumugam told them that he initially refused to drive the bus but the transport officials forced him to do so.