The city Corporation on Friday demolished a bus waiting shed outside the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET), which was earlier damaged allegedly by moral policing miscreants, who had cut up the long bench to prevent male and female students from sitting together.
The civic body will now construct a "gender-neutral" bus waiting shed in public private partnership model in the area, according to Corporation officials.
Back in July, the students of the college found the waiting shed outside the campus, which was one of their hangout spots, damaged. The long steel bench was cut into three single seats, with some distance separating each of the seats. The students had accused a section of the local residents, who had earlier had issues with the students sitting together at the bus stop, of being behind the act. They also staged a protest with the students sitting on the laps of their classmates on the damaged seats, against the attempt to moral police them.
After the images of the protest went viral, Mayor Arya Rajendran had visited the spot and later said in a Facebook post that the act of the miscreants was "inappropriate and unbecoming of a progressive society. She had said that there was no ban on girls and boys sitting together in Kerala. The Mayor had also promised that the Corporation would demolish the damaged bus stop and construct a new one in its place. However, the civic body had delayed the demolition, leading to criticism.
Workers deployed by the civic body finally arrived at the spot on Friday and demolished the bus stop. According to Corporation officials, a new one would be built with a better ambience and facilities at the spot.
