PANJIM: Already reeling under hardships due to lack of enough Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) buses, the woes of commuters got compounded further on Wednesday as the KTC sent almost 70 buses for transporting people to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally in Ankola, Karnataka.
The opposition parties in Goa took a dig at the government for sending buses to Karnataka. Some anguished commuters at Margao KTC bus stand said that there was no need to send buses to Karnataka for a political meeting by causing inconvenience to Goans.
A commuter Ricardo Rebello said, “KTC has been complaining that they don’t have enough buses to provide a good public transport service in Goa. To overcome the shortage of buses, our government had decided to hire buses from private bus operators. Despite being aware of this situation, the government decided to send buses to Karnataka for election campaign. Doesn’t our government care about the public transportation needs of the people of Goa?” he asked.
Large numbers of people mostly travelling on interstate routes were stranded on Margao and other bus stands in Goa for hours.
The KTC Chairman Ulhas Tuenkar said that “except for a couple of issues”, there was no major problem that arose due to sending of buses to Karnataka. “The number of buses was not more than 70. We had sent the buses that were earlier assigned to school children,” he said.
“Various BJP block committees of Karnataka requested for KTC buses and were sent to them after the hiring charges were paid. In fact these buses have already returned to Goa after rendering its services,” he said.
He also said that when there are big events in Goa, buses from Karnataka are hired.
