Tension prevailed at the Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS), in Vijayawada on March 24 when a group of beggars attacked the APSRTC staff and security personnel when they launched a drive to send the vagabonds and beggars out of the bus station.
Y. Srinivas Rao, an RTC Traffic Inspector, and Sambasiva Rao, an outsourcing staff, suffered injuries in the attack.
Police, who rushed to the bus station, picked up a few vagabonds and beggars who allegedly thrashed the RTC employees, and shifted them to Krishnalanka police station.
NTR Police Commissioner Kranthi Rana Tata said the beggars retaliated when the RTC staff asked them to vacate the bus station in the wee hours on Sunday. “When the passengers complained that some beggars and vagabonds occupied the chairs on the platforms, we tried to wake them up around 3 a.m. and they resorted to the attack,” a corporation employee said.
The incident created panic in the bus station, with passengers running helter-skelter on the platforms. Police rushed to PNBS with additional forces and took the vagabonds into custody.
“Many vagabonds and beggars are taking shelter in the bus station. They are sleeping on the seats, arranged for commuters, and were creating unhygienic conditions on the platforms. When we ask the vagabonds to vacate the seats, they attacked passengers on several occasions in the past,” a passenger, V. Ramana, told The Hindu.
“Vagabonds and beggars from Ibrahimpatnam, Kondapalli, G. Kondur, Mylavaram, Jaggaiahpet, Nandigama, Khammam, Tiruvur, Agiripalli, Nunna and other places will beg at the junctions in the day, and sleep on the chairs in the bus station causing inconvenience to the passengers,” said a shop keeper in PNBS.
