In the backdrop of the Telangana agitation and the unwillingness of APSRTC to run city buses inside the campus, it is time for Osmania University authorities to mull over providing bicycles for the students to travel within the campus.
Students, especially women, face many hardships due to the absence of affordable means of transport into the campus beyond Shivam Road. City buses, which were in abundance till two years ago, have been brought to a total halt inside the campus.
Route numbers 107T, 107J and 136, apart from the likes of 3H, 3N and 3K, which earlier passed the length of the campus, no more ply there now, as RTC has imposed an indefinite embargo on the routes.
Some of the buses have been cancelled altogether while others ply via the parallel route covering Adikmet, Jamai Osmania, and Arts College.
While the corporation blames it on the students, a few of whom were reportedly involved in earlier incidents of setting the buses afire at the peak of Telangana movement, students hit back saying it is unfair to punish all for the deeds of a few.
“After the buses were cancelled, it has become very difficult to commute, especially for those returning to hostels after nightfall. They say that it was done in view of earlier incidents of arson involving the buses. But the corporation has not cancelled buses to other locations where such incidents happened,” says K. Karuna, a student.
Ch. Kavitha, another student, says she had to face harassment from drunkards while walking down to the Ladies Hostel from Vidyanagar in the night.
Auto-rickshaw drivers too are not willing to come inside the campus, or charge heavily on the pretext that they would not get any passenger in the return journey.
Students either have to get down at the Shivam stop on the Vidyanagar side or at Tarnaka on the other to get an entry into the university, after which they must find their own means of transportation.
Alternatively, they can wait patiently for buses, which would leave them at the back of the Arts College, from where they will have to walk up to their destination. Adding to the woes, the corporation has made it a habit to divert the buses from Shivam and Tarnaka too, given even a hint of tension in the university.
In such a situation, provision of bicycles by the university at strategic locations inside the campus may solve the problem to some extent, as students can hire a bicycle by paying a nominal deposit, whenever there is a need. Further, it may help the university in keeping its environs relatively carbon-free!
Published - October 22, 2012 08:16 am IST
