Tired of technical snags and pathetic condition of buses, pupils demand new buses on the route
Tired of irregular services, regular breakdowns and risk to their lives, several students from Matheran — who have no option but to depend on the midi bus services between Matheran and Neral to travel to and fro from their college — have been sitting on a hunger strike near Karjat ST bus depot, seeking new buses and improvement in services.
Around 55 students, including 25 girls, from various hamlets of Matheran hill station daily walk for around four kilometers and reach Dasturi Naka from where they board the MSRTC buses to reach their college at Neral. However, the students allege that these buses never run on schedule and are in such state that they regularly develop snags and are cancelled.
"Since Matheran does not have any higher education facility all students from standard XI and above travel to Neral for our college. Since the train service takes a lot of time and the private vans cost a lot we depend on these buses for which, we have taken a monthly pass costing Rs500. But we are now tired of these buses that are fit to be scrapped," said Shweta Shinde, a student of FYBCom who is part of the students sitting on hunger strike since Monday.
Vaibhav Pawar, another student on hunger strike, said that they are being supported by around 150 more students from Matheran and Karjat. "What if these buses develop some fault while we are coming downhill from Matheran and meets with an accident. We are demanding new and better equipped buses. On several occasions, the bus to Matheran does not turn up and when we call the depot at Karjat no one answers the phone. Eventually, we are forced to walk all the way to Matheran," he said.
Dinesh Sutar, councillor from Matheran who is also the chairman of education committee and is supporting the protest, said that it was sad that these students who have their exams next month have to end up sitting on hunger strike to demand action from MSRTC, who has been ignoring their complaints. "We have seen these buses and they are in pathetic condition and do not have enough power to climb the steep slopes due to which they keep developing technical snags. Hence, the services keep getting cancelled and students are forced to walk from Matheran and Neral," he said.
Sutar informed that several officials, including local MLA Suresh Lad along with Tehsildar and officials from MSRTC, visited the students and assured that new buses will arrive soon but students want a concrete solution.
It was in 2008 that bus service was first started in Matheran to Neral but the services were stopped after agitation by private taxi operators in which a bus was even burnt, later in 2011 MSRTC provided two new buses, which is extensively used by students, locals as well as tourists.
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