It would be quite astonishing to know something as basic as a bus service could not reach this village in Tamil Nadu for the 30 long years. But in the end, it took the District Collector Karur, Mr Prabhushankar T Gunalan, to take a snap decision and end the agonizing long wait for the bus.
In an exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Prabhushankar, who stepped in as the District Collector of Karur a month back, explained how he fulfilled the peoples’ decades old wish in just three days after acknowledging the issue.
REMOTE LOCATION
Karuppampalayam village falls on the banks of Amravati, which is a tributary of river Cauvery. To access the Karur town, one has to cross the river from Karuppampalayam village. Mr. Prabhushankar said, “As there is no bridge to cross the river, people had to travel around 10 kms to reach the town. For the last 30 years, the bus would stop 2-3 kms away from the village and the villagers had to walk down all the way to catch the bus.”
“Apart from this,” he added, “a check dam was built right next to this village. People of the village had found a short cut through which they can access the town but it is only accessible during the lean months when the river dries up.”
As Prabhushankar got posted as the DC of Karur last month, he was unaware of this problem which the villagers were facing for three decades.
ACKNOWLEDGING THE ISSUE
It was just a coincidence that the officer scheduled a routine inspection to Karuppampalayam village on 15 July this year. The purpose of inspection was to take stock of some rural development work in the village. However, it turned out to be the right time for the villagers to address the issue before the IAS officer.
Mr. Prabhushankar said, “No sooner did I reach the village that a group of villagers surrounded my vehicle and asked to stop it. On asking them why they stopped the car, they starting addressing their three-decade-long issue of not having access to bus service in the village. The issue was a big concern for them as it was creating inconvenience to reach the nearby town of Karur.”
He added, “It was a very unbelievable thing that the issue, which could have been solved easily, was prevailing for such a long time. This was absolutely an outlier as Tamil Nadu as a state has a very fine infrastructure in terms of both road connectivity and road transport.”
QUICK REDRESSAL
After sizing the situation, the officer immediately contacted the general manager of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC). Mr. Prabhushankar said, “I instructed him that the issue needs to be sorted out immediately and it took not more than three days to fulfill the three decade-long need of the people.”
By July 19, the Karur district administration, with support of the TNSTC launched two bus services – on morning and evening – to ply to the village.“The morning bus reaches the village at 9:15 am while the evening bus comes at 6 pm,” says the DC.
The villagers were astonished to see a bus in their vicinity after 30 years, and a wave of joy spread across to them. Mr Prabhushankar said, “This small step by the administration will help the villagers in a big way as school going children, working class and people seeking health facilities will easily commute from now onwards. Apart from this, women will be able to travel free of cost under the free bus pass scheme for women launched by the Tamil Nadu government.”
Well done, Mr. Prabhushankar
