Devotees at Dharmasthala face inconvenience ’cause of transport strike

Belthangady: Karnataka State transport workers strike has caused major difficulty for the devotees arriving at Dharmastala to celebrate the ongoing Laksha Deepotsava.

Usually, around 350 buses service to various parts of the State from Dharmasthala every day.

In the course of Laksha Deepotsava, special buses were arranged for a week, beginning at 5:30 am. The buses are available every 15 minutes to Bengaluru, every 30 minutes to Udupi and Mangaluru, and every 10 minutes to Subramanya.

50 additional buses were deployed for service at Dharmasthala alone in the past years. Around 30 trips were made to Madikeri, BC Road, Sulia, and Puttur.

However, this time, KSRTC has lost a huge part of its revenue. Reports suggest that KSRTC used to generate an income of Rs.22 lakhs per day during the deepotsava but this year it hasn’t even made Rs 10 lakhs in two days because of the strike.

The strike was called on December 11, the public didn’t face any trouble as few buses were seen running on schedule.  Although on Saturday, December 12 the workers supported the strike and stayed back at Dharmasthala.

The depot manager of KSRTC, Dharmasthala, Shivaram Naik said, “Due to the strike called for by the staff, buses have not made trips. Due to coronavirus, we had lost lots of income. Now the revenue has depleted further due to the strike by the employees. Though we had to put additional buses for Laksha Deepotsava it is not possible due to the protest.” said

Devotees of Dharmasthala who have arrived in Hassan from various parts of the State are going to the holy place in small private vehicles due to the transport workers’ strike that has entered the third day on Sunday.

The plight of the devotees from Hassan 

The devotees from Hassan who arrived at the district by train are now paying hefty prices for private vehicles in order to visit the temple. Besides the passengers travelling to various parts of the State from Hassan and Mysuru have to pay extra as the private vehicle owners are demanding Rs 5000 whereas the bus fee from Hassan to Mysuru is Rs 500.

The exhibition has been cancelled this year. All the programmes including the interreligious convention and literature convention will be held as per the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the government.