NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, DEC 11
Days after a woman fish seller was forced to deboard a bus at Colachel, which was condemned by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, social justice continues to elude the marginalized communities.
In second such incident within a week, a bus driver and conductor of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) were suspended after a video surfaced, showing them forcibly deboarding a family belonging to the indigenous Narikurava community at Nagercoil in the state’s Kanyakumari district.
Tnstc driver, conductor placed under suspension for forcing Narikurava family to get down from the bus at Vadasery bus stand in #Nagercoil, #Kanyakumari district this evening. Minister @Manothangaraj took it up with TNSTC official after the video was shared in the social media pic.twitter.com/8wqfYRSET6
— M.K. Ananth (@AnanthWriter) December 9, 2021
The video shows the bus conductor tossing the family’s belongings off the bus and forcing them to deboard. The passengers were a visually challenged man, an inconsolably crying child and a woman.
It is alleged that the family was fighting amongst themselves. Due to the disturbance, other passengers on board allegedly demanded that the Narikuravars be deboarded.
In light of the video, the TNSTC Nagercoil division general manager initiated an inquiry and suspended driver C Nelson and conductor C S Jayadas. In a statement, the general manager said that the bus with number plate TN 74 N 1802, which belonged to the Thiruvattar branch, was on route number 565 (Nagercoil to Tirunelveli) when the Narikurava family was forced to get off the bus at the Vadasery bus stand.
— Mano Thangaraj (@Manothangaraj) December 9, 2021
Tamil Nadu IT Minister T Mano Thangaraj tweeted on Thursday that the driver and the conductor were suspended from work after he took up the issue with the TNSTC officials.