THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With 17 of its buses attacked by hartal loyalists in Thiruvananthapuram district on Saturday, the KSRTC is predictably jittery about rolling out its buses on Monday, with the LDF and BJP observing a state-wide dawn-to-dusk hartal demanding roll-back of the petrol price hike. The KSRTC is prepared to run its usual services in convoys if the police provide escorts, Transport Minister V S Sivakumar said. “On Saturday alone, we lost Rs 1.75 crore in revenue from operations due to the hartal. Repairs on the attacked buses would cost us another Rs1.25 lakh,’’ he said. According to KSRTC managing director Alexander K Luke, the KSRTC would ply services depending on the advice given by the police. “We are ready to conduct the services. Discussions are on with the police and we will take hourly inputs from them,’’ he said. Three KSRTC drivers were injured on Saturday in the attacks unleashed by hartal loyalists. The hartal in Thiruvananthapuram district was in protest against a police action against SFI-DYFI activists in the city on Friday. Sivakumar said that he would be appealing to the LDF leaders to leave the KSRTC buses alone as they constituted public property and further attacks would only hurt the KSRTC’s efforts to pull itself out of losses. On Saturday, the KSRTC had cancelled its Volvo services, including the city services, but began its normal services at 6 a.m. But with reports of attacks on the buses floating in, the police advised the KSRTC to stop the services, which the transport utility did by 10.30 a.m.
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