Chennai Corporation on Tuesday started a dedicated bus
service for students resettled from Kannappar Thidal to Kannagi Nagar
last month.

As many as 40 students will be able to
use the bus to reach their school in the vicinity of Kannappar Thidal
where they are enrolled. According to a senior official of Chennai
Corporation, the expenses for hiring the bus has been borne by the
Chennai Corporation . The students belong to the families that were
evicted last month from the land near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to
facilitate construction of additional tracks for Asian Athletics
Championship.

More than 170 families were shifted
from the area to Kannagi Nagar. The eviction was carried out by the
civic body to hand over eight acre-plot of land to the Sports
Development Authority of the State for creation of additional
infrastructure for the Asian Athletics Championship. A Rs.40-crore
package to renovate the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium to re-lay its track and
upgrade facilities to bring them on a par with international standards
was approved last year. Last week, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced
that the State would not host the 20th Asian Athletics Championships as
a mark of protest against participation of Sri Lanka in the event,
citing news reports of war crimes by Sri Lanka.

As
residents questioned the logic of the move in the middle of the academic
year, the civic body made arrangements to help the students cope with
the challenge of travelling 40 km for the rest of the academic year.

Residents
of Kannagi Nagar, who were relocated earlier by other departments,
stressed the need for similar initiatives. “Other departments should
also arrange bus facilities to students who belong to resettled
families. Many students develop an emotional bonding with schools. Such
move may be helpful,” said Meenavan, a resident of Kannagi Nagar.

“I
wanted to board the bus to reach school today. As the bus was only for
Allikulam students, I was not permitted to board the bus,” said Ahmed, a
student of standard VII in a school in Santhome. Many resettled
students also claimed that they had to take two buses to reach school in
areas such as Santhome.