Bus timings affect students from remote areas in Erode

Some 50 to 60 students of the Government Tribal Residential Higher Secondary School astatine Hasanur are compelled to embark connected arduous journeys from distant hamlets by 6 a.m. and instrumentality lone by 6 p.m. regular owed to rigid Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) autobus schedules. Parents contended that the prolonged commute deprives students of indispensable meals and undermines their world focus, urging authorities to revise the autobus timings to align with schoolhouse hours.

Most of the students, studying successful Classes VI to XII, hail from Kuliyada hamlet, situated 20 km distant successful Hasanur panchayat. The archetypal autobus from Kuliyada departs astatine 6.30 a.m. reaching the schoolhouse by 7.20 a.m. earlier proceeding towards Thalavadi. The 2nd autobus leaves astatine 7.30 a.m. and reaches the Kollegal–Mysuru Road junction adjacent Arepalayam by 8.10 a.m., and proceeds towards Sathyamangalam. Students utilizing the 2nd work are forced to locomotion astir 2.5 km on the Mysuru–Dindigul National Highway (NH 948), which passes done the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), oregon trust connected lifts from passing commercialized vehicles to scope school, wherever classes commence astatine 9.20 a.m.

A Class IX pupil said helium often skips meal oregon is incapable to transportation nutrient owed to the aboriginal start. Students stressed the request for safer and much applicable question arrangements. Residents warned that commuting hazards could pb to schoolhouse dropouts, kid marriages, and children being pushed into labour, perennial issues successful elevation areas.

R. Arulsamy, a Hasanur panchayat resident, said students indispensable emergence by 5.30 a.m., get ready, battalion nutrient and drawback the bus. “In the evening, the autobus departs from the schoolhouse astatine 5 p.m., reaching the hamlets lone by 6 p.m. Those from Pudukadu, Uppatti and Sokki Dhoddi indispensable locomotion 1 to 2 km from the main roadworthy to scope home. The predominant beingness of chaotic animals, including elephants, leopards, and bears, connected the reserve roads poses a terrible menace to their safety,” helium added.

The schoolhouse authorities person appealed to the Education Department to intervene and property TNSTC to revise the Kuliyada autobus departure to 7 a.m. and guarantee that the 2nd autobus halts astatine the schoolhouse regularly.

S.C. Natraj, Director of Sathyamangalam-based NGO Service Unit for Development Activities successful Rural (SUDAR), said upgrading schools successful distant hamlets, including Kottadai, would connection a semipermanent solution to the commuting problem.