Bandh: Bengaluru pays a price

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She had come all the way from Mau in Uttar Pradesh expecting to spend a nice summer vacation in South India with her children. Bengaluru, Mysore, Ooty and Tirupathi were on the travel itinerary. Unfortunately, Anita Devi picked the wrong day to travel.

The KSRTC bus to Udhagamandalam the family was to travel in and which was scheduled to depart at 2:30 pm, was cancelled.

Thirteen-year-old Siddharth looked disappointed while his seven-year-old brother Aditya was almost in tears as they camped at Shanthinagar bus station on Thursday afternoon, caught in the middle of the bandh called to protest the increase in the price of petrol.

The delay of at least one day meant their travel itinerary has gone for a toss. “Now, we do not have time for Tirupathi Balaji darshan. Our tickets to go back to UP are already booked for June 5, which cannot be rescheduled. The cancellation today means the waste of a day in Bengaluru in this tight schedule,” Asha Devi said.

She consoled her children while her husband Dharmaraj Chauhan was arguing with KSRTC officials, demanding to know why they were not told in advance about the cancellation, and arranging for a refund and fresh bookings.

“We have return tickets booked for Ooty and Tirupathi back to back. This cancellation means rescheduling of the Ooty tickets and cancellation of Tirupathi tickets. While booking the tickets on Wednesday, I repeatedly enquired with officials if operations would be affected by the bandh. They said I had nothing to worry about,” said Mr Chauhan.

“Also, we are staying at a friend’s place in Yelahanka. KSRTC could have saved us the trip from Yelahanka to Shanthinagar and back with just one SMS about cancellation of the trip,” he lamented.
Software engineer Mohith K.P. who was stranded at Majestic bus station has a similar complaint.

“I had booked a ticket to Sakleshpur. The bus is cancelled but I was not given any notice. Why does the KSRTC ask for a commuter’s mobile number if they do not use it to communicate in such a situation? I had a lot of trouble finding an auto and had to pay extra to get here. After waiting for the bus past its departure time, I figured that the bus was cancelled,” he said.

B. Ravi, his wife Hema and her mother Jyothi spent their entire afternoon at Shanthinagar bus station after their 2 pm KSRTC bus to Chennai was cancelled without any prior notice. The family, which was in Bengaluru to attend a wedding was left with no place to go back to and waited for KSRTC to resume their services.

Metro ran with fewer people
Though other public transport was drastically impacted, Namma Metro carried on. Trains ran under tight security but and there were fewer passengers due to the closure of the central business district.

“Our operations were not disturbed. We had tight security and additional security was deployed at stations. We also had metro employees on platforms for the same. But there was a lesser number of passengers,” said a senior official.

Techies off, work from home
The bandh saw most IT firms in the city shutting shop or
allowing their employees to work from home. Infosys employees in Bengaluru received SMS alerts early Thursday informing them that they would remain closed for the day while MindTree sent out mails on Wednesday night to its employees.

However, it was work as usual at Wipro, but employees who could not make it for lack of personal transport, were given the choice to work out of home. Critical teams at Yahoo! India reported to work earlier than usual, before 6 am, and left three hours after regular closing hours.

Three BMTC buses torched in protest
Three BMTC buses were torched in the early hours by protesters. One bus was set on fire in Roopena Agrahara while two others were torched in K.R Puram. It took the fire and emergency service ersonnel a long time to douse the fire. The authorities were forced to with draw services after protesters stoned 14 BMTC buses and two KSRTC buses in areas like Jigani, Electronics City, Banashankari, Yelahanka, K.R. Puram, Bannerghatta and City Railway station.

The KSRTC’s losses are estimated at Rs2.5 to 3 crores and BMTC approximately Rs3 crore.

Nowhere to shop, nowhere to eat

Deserted roads and closed shops. This was the scene in all of Bengaluru on Thursday. The Central Business District witnessed a total shut down. Shops too were shut on Brigade Road, MG Road and Commercial Street. UB City was shut and covered with a huge net to prevent people from entering.

The fear of being stoned or burnt down ensured that popular places in the city kept their shutters down.
All the shops in commercial and residential areas across the city — Jayanagar, Koramangala, CMH Road, Indiranagar, Rajajinagar — were closed. Most restaurants remained closed while some offered take away with shutters half open.

Ajay Antony, a student of St Joseph’s PU College said: “A couple of friends and I took a ride through the city to see how the strike was proceeding. Although there was no chaos, businesses were shut down. More than 80% of the stores on Brigade Road were shut and there were hardly any people.”

Deepthi Prakash, a software engineer said, “It’s my bad luck that today is my day off. Hoping for some entertainment at UB City, a couple of friends and I headed there. But it was closed and netted to prevent any mishaps.”

Angela Sharon, a bank employee said, “My colleagues and I took the day off to have some fun. But to our surprise, all our usual hangouts were closed and we couldn’t even shop on Commercial Street as everything was closed!”

It was bad news for foodies who had to resort to home cooking as most restaurants were shut. Said Philip Rasquinha, “Bangalore has literally spoilt me with its amazing food joints and eateries in every nook and corner. When all these places are not open on a day like this, I feel so lost in this welcoming city.”

‘It was a horrible experience’

The situation at the railway station was equally bad. Vinod Chelawat from Udaipur was stranded at the Bangalore City Railway Station with 12 members of his family who had travelled from Udaipur to Bengaluru to offer prayers at Padmavathi Temple in Krishnagiri.

The family struggled to get a conveyance to Mysore Road Satellite station for their onward journey. Auto drivers demanded Rs400 per to cover a distance of six to seven kilometres.

“It has been an awful experience for me and my family to get a taxi or auto on hire as they are demanding exorbitant fares. I never thought the situation would be so bad in Bengaluru. The pre-paid auto counter has a long queue with hardly any autos. In the absence of interstate bus service, we are now planning to take intercity train to Dharmapuri, en route to Krishnagiri,” he said.

Many other stranded passengers were exploring the option of intercity trains in the absence of KSRTC bus service.

Bhavana Shah, a high court lawyer from Mumbai, who arrived at the City Railway Station said, “A taxi driver demanded Rs5,000 to ply from Bengaluru to Krishnagiri. I came from Mumbai to offer prayers at Padmavati Temple in Krishnagiri on my birthday. I thought I will take taxi from the City Railway station but the experience has been horrible. I decided to share a taxi with a family but the president of the taxi union did not allow us to do so,” she said.

Taxi and auto drivers lost no opportunity to fleece railway passengers. Gufran Baig, a PG student hailing from Madhya Pradesh, was stranded at City Railway Station as no rickshaw was willing to drop him at Kottigepalya on Magadi Road for less than Rs350. He usually pays Rs100 to cover this distance.