A group of tourists from Mumbai gave a befitting answer to buses making unauthorised halts on the Aquem-Margao road when authorities prefer to look the other way. The tourists, including men, women and children, literally took on the bus conductor before damaging the bus rear mirror at the St Sebastian Church junction on Monday evening.
The incident brought to the fore the contentious issue of buses crawling on the town’s roads leaving commuters at the complete mercy of the bus operators. In the instant case, the tourists had boarded the bus behind the Grace Church junction to head to Aquem to catch the evening train to Mumbai at the Railway station. But, the tourists maintained that the bus made several stops on the way despite their plea that they would miss the connecting train to Mumbai. As the driver and the conductor paid no heed to their pleas, the tourists took on the conductor when the bus finally reached the St Sebastian junction. While the tourists damaged the rear side mirror before rushing to the railway station to catch their train, locals too offered their support to the tourists, saying the bus operators deserve such punishment for throwing all rules to the winds.
Says Assistant Director of Transport, Sandeep Desai, “We have noticed that the bus operators on the Margao-Housing Board route are not ready to change their mindset. We had a meeting with the operators at the Grace Church hall, but in vain.”
