Students of the Bangalore University had launched a protest after a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Commission (BMTC) bus hit a student while she was trying to board it on Monday. The student, identified as Shilpashree, sustained grievous injuries and was admitted to a private hospital in Nagarabavi and later moved to Fortis hospital on Bannerghatta Road, where she is undergoing treatment. On October 12, the students called off the protests after a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor of the University Dr Jayakara SM and top police officials. The meeting which lasted nearly three hours discussed safety measures to be undertaken in the campus to prevent such accidents. BMTC is paying for Shilpashree’s treatment while the University is yet to decide the amount of monetary compensation to be paid on their behalf.
One of the demands put forth by the protesting students is not to allow vehicles that do not belong to the students, teaching and non-teaching inside the campus. Speaking to TNM, Lokesh Ram, President, student’s union said the usual practice is not to allow such vehicles inside the campus without restrictions. “For 12 years, students have been telling the management that public and private vehicles should not be allowed to use the roads on the campus without restrictions. You look at the other universities here. Do IISC (Indian Institute of Science) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management) allow random vehicles without any type of verification to use campus roads? Those universities have compound walls and the roads are not for public use.”
While Lokesh believes that the local population would be affected if such restrictions are imposed, he is also of the opinion that their movement must not affect the students’ safety. He said: “We have a good relationship with the locals here. We interact with them sometimes when we go outside the campus. So they should not feel like we are taking something away from them when we ask them not to use the roads. It might cause some inconvenience for them because they are used to these traffic-free roads but our safety is also important.”
Lokesh adds that one of the long term measures discussed during the meeting was to build new compound walls for the University and an alternate road that the public can use. For now, a short term solution for the problem is to allow public vehicles to pass through the campus between 6am and 8pm. Other measures also include illuminating the campus better, building compound walls around the campus, and enforcing regular traffic rules inside the campus. But according to the students, building an alternate road is the only way to reduce the number of accidents, Lokesh says.
“There have been quite a few accidents on campus because of public vehicles. So many of them are not brought to our attention. There was an accident two weeks before Shilpashree’s accident and the person was seriously injured as well. But we came to know about it only when we were protesting after Shilpshree’s accident. These accidents could have been avoided if vehicles were better regulated,” Lokesh says, adding that an alternate road for public vehicles will go a long way in preventing accidents.