Chaos creeps into Hubballi as Cong holds meet in Davanagere

HUBBALLI: The "Sarvodaya Samavesh", organized by the Congress in Davanagere on Saturday, inconvenienced thousands of bus passengers, particularly those travelling to neighbouring cities like Belagavi, Gadag and Haveri. With 511 buses of the North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) hired for the convention, the frequency of services was less frequent. The buses, which were pressed into service, were overcrowded with passengers. Many passengers were left unattended at the old bus stand in Hubballi and new bus stand in Dharwad. Notices at the controller offices at bus stands sought cooperation from passengers. Sources in the Hubballi and Dharwad divisions of the NWKRTC confirmed that 192 buses (142 from Hubballi division and 50 from Dharwad division) were given to Congress workers on casual contract (CC) basis. When asked, Hubballi divisional controller ASR Namazi said that the corporation has to meet the demand for contract buses. "Whether it is a political party or for marriages, we provide buses on CC basis. To manage today's situation, we made alternative arrangements by pressing into service halting and spare buses," he said. Dharwad NWKRTC divisional traffic officer Vivekanand VA said that buses were released from different depots to avoid inconvenience in daily operation. Parvati Kittur, who was waiting at Hubballi old bus stand, said that she had to wait for 45 minutes to catch a bus to Kalghatgi. "Usually, we get buses to Kalghatgi in 5-10 minutes. But today, women and elders are unable to get into buses as their frequency is lesser and there are more number of passengers," she said. Iranna Bandiwad of Navalgund said that if NWKRTC is providing hundreds of buses to some event, it should have announced the same in the media well in advance. "It they had done it, we would have thought of alternatives like postponing our Hubballi visit by a day. NWKRTC should be sensitive while releasing buses for other purposes, particularly over weekends," he said. Villagers from Hulikeri had heated arguments with the controller at Dharwad bus stand, alleging that the officials citing false reasons like "tyre puncture". "We waited here for two hours. But did not get proper answer from the controller," said one of the passengers. A traffic controller, on condition of anonymity, said that even personnel at bus stands were not aware of bulk booking of buses. "We were instructed to cite reasons like 'bus is under repair', 'got puncture', 'it will be delayed by an hour' and so on. However, it was difficult to handle the crowd," he said. -TOI