Reports state that the conductor was attacked after he requested that a few passengers speak Kannada in order to purchase tickets. Because the ticket dispute concerned an underage girl, the conductor is being prosecuted under the POCSO legislation.
On Sunday, the government bus service between Karnataka and Maharashtra was suspended indefinitely for the second day in a row. The bus services have been suspended while demonstrations in the border district of Belagavi continue over the continuing linguistic conflict.
A gang of Marathi-speaking individuals allegedly beat up a Karnataka state transport (NWKRTC) conductor in Balenkundri hamlet of Belagavi district on Friday due to a language barrier. Reports state that the conductor was attacked after he requested that a few passengers speak Kannada in order to purchase tickets. Because the ticket dispute concerned an underage girl, the conductor is being prosecuted under the POCSO legislation.
In Chitradurga, central Karnataka, on Saturday, a bus driver from Maharashtra had his face blackened by members of a Kannada group in revenge. Shiv Sena activists tied saffron flags on another Karnataka bus in Kolhapur on Saturday and painted a Karnataka bus in Pune with black ink in a tit-for-tat effort.
All MSRTC buses headed for Karnataka will be off the road for an indeterminate amount of time, according to Pratap Sarnaik, the transport minister of Maharashtra, which is run by the NDA, for the safety of the conductors and drivers.
Sarnaik has also requested that the Karnataka government address the problems and provide an explanation for the attack on MSRTC employees.
It is currently hard to predict when we will resume operations. “There is a lot of aggression on both sides right now,” Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) general manager (traffic), Nitin Maind, told TOI.
Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, the linguistic organizations on opposing sides, have accused one another of adding linguistic color to the dispute.
Thousands of commuters from both states who cross the border for work and business have been impacted by the suspension of government bus services. Currently, KSRTC buses headed for Maharashtra run all the way to the state border. From there, travelers can take private vehicles for their next destination or board MSRTC buses headed for Karnataka, which halt a short distance from the border. For work, the majority of Belagavi’s interstate commuters travel to Sangli, Kolhapur, and Miraj; some even travel as far as Pune and Mumbai.
The suspension of government bus services has affected thousands of commuters from both states who cross the border for business and work. At the moment, Maharashtra-bound KSRTC buses travel all the way to the state boundary. From there, passengers can board MSRTC buses bound for Karnataka, which stop a short distance from the border, or take private vehicles to their next location.
