THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Monday, teenager Vivek Varma could only gaze with wonder at the deserted roads, which were busy even on the Christmas day. ”Back home, we have a plethora of issues, ranging from gang rivalry to communal riots. But this is something new. Strange!” the boy from Agra, who sells puppets on the roadsides, exclaimed at the new edition of hartal organised by the BJP, against failure of the State Government and the City Corporation to solve the waste issue. The boy, like many others, was at the receiving end of the hartal. The dawn-to-dusk agitation elicited mixed response from the public, who had to face all the hardships. Most of the shops remained closed and few private vehicles were seen on the road. Meanwhile, the KSRTC continued its operations as usual. The officials in the KSRTC control room said that the City depot operated 351 schedules in the city, out of a total of 520. The rest of the schedules were cancelled owing to unavailability of buses since 90 buses have been deployed for Sabarimala duty. K Suresh, Controlling Inspector of KSRTC Thampanoor depot, said that the services from the depot went on as scheduled. ‘’The hartal has least affected the working of the depot since most of the services were operating beyond the city limits,’’ he said.Most autorickshaws also kept off the roads. Only a few drivers ventured out defying the hartal call. D Radhakrishnan, an auto driver attached with the Sasthamangalam stand, was one among them. But he seemed agonised after only a few passengers hired his vehicle. ”Passengers are less and even if we get a ride, most probably we would have to return to the stand empty. Sometimes, we may get an extra `10 or so from considerate passengers,” he said. The main petrol pumps in the city remained closed and this also hit vehicle movement. Since the private buses heeded to the hartal call, it was two-wheelers and autorickshaws the public relied on. But scarcity of petrol affected their services. The petrol pumps operated by the Civil Supplies Corporation were kept open, providing some relief to the public. Here, the queues remained long. At the Civil Supplies outlet at Althara, around 4,200 litres of petrol were sold till 4 pm. Meanwhile, two incidents of stone-pelting were reported from Peroorkada police station limits. Two buses were attacked near Mukkolakkal area. In other areas, the hartal remained peaceful.
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