Chief Justice of India N V Ramana intervened after a student from Chidedu village in Manchal mandal wrote to him about the need for bus services to go to school. CJI Ramana’s intervention resulted in the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) restoring services on Wednesday.
According to TSRTC Managing Director V C Sajjanar, the student is P Vaishnavi of class VIII of State government-run school. He said she wrote a letter explaining the circumstances to CJI Ramana, who in turn sent the letter to Mr Sajjanar, alerting him to restore bus services during school hours.
“We had stopped services in some areas due to COVID – 19 pandemic and the lockdown, and could not restart them for occupancy reasons. In the letter, the students said that before lockdown there were buses for them to go to school, but after lockdown there were no buses. We are thankful to the Honourable CJI for alerting us. We have restored bus services from today,” Mr Sajjanar told The Hindu, adding that the letter which Vaishnavi wrote also her siblings mentions P Praneeth, a class IX student, and P Preethi, an Intermediate first-year student.
Later in the day, the TSRTC said that the students’ father passed away due to a cardiac arrest during the first wave of COVID pandemic. In the letter, Vaishnavi pointed out that going to school in an autorickshaw was proving to be expensive, and that the suspension of bus services was causing hardship to her friends from the village.
Mr Sajjanar tweeted that bus services have been restored during school timings, honouring the children’s right to education. “TSRTC management sincerely thanks the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India for alerting us,” he tweeted.
The MD said that the corporation has been receiving several requests from students in connection with the starting or restoring bus services after lockdown was lifted. In about a month, as many as 30 bus services have been restored.
