Residents from four hamlets in Veppampattu village, around 10 km from Kaniyambadi town in Vellore, staged a road roko and seized a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) bus on Thursday, demanding restoration of bus services between the four hamlets, including the Scheduled Castes (SC) colony in the village, and Vellore town.
Resident said that the existing bus (Route No. 15 N; Vellore town; Nanjukondapuram village) has been operating since 1990, when the first bus service operated to tiny hamlets Periyapalampakkam Colony, Mullathukottai, Krishnavaram, and Kollumedu that come under Veppampattu village panchayat of Kaniyambadi panchayat union of Vellore district. The bus has made at least seven trips to these hamlets every day.
However, the bus has skipped the four hamlets and gone through Kumpu Kottai village to reach Nanjukondapuram for the past few months. TNSTC officials said that caste Hindu in Periyapalampakkam village have been opposing the operation of bus services to hamlets via the colony in the village. “We gave petitions to the Vellore Collector, P. Kumaravel Pandian, TNSTC officials, and J. L. Eswarappan, MLA (Arcot), on August 3. But the bus services have not been restored so far,” said A. Silambarasan, a resident.
