Dubbaka (Medak): People of this remote village had no clue why the busses that left the depot on the first day of the New Year never returned.

All the 47 buses belonging to the APSRTC depot have been shifted to Siddipet, Medak and Pregnapur depots and the Dubbaka depot was closed down. "It was closed in such a way that we feel cheated and betrayed," said Dubbaka sarpanch Subhadra Sridhar who sat on a rasta-roko near Habshipur crossroads on the Ramayampet-Siddipet road along with the all party Depot Bachao committee on Wednesday. The village is on an indefinite bandh since Monday.

The depot meant to serve Dubbaka and Mirdoddi mandals of the Medak district was established on August 26, 1998, during the tenure of K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the then Minister of Transport, and Dommata MLA Cheruku Mutyam Reddy. The depot received awards for best fuel consumption twice and even stood fifth among other depots in terms of growth. However, the depot, which could write off losses that stood at Rs 1.2 crores to the present day Rs. 15 lakhs, has been closed when it was actually limping to breakeven point. The depot showed exemplary spirit even though there was no depot manager. The staff claiming anonymity told The Hindu that the 71-km stretch between Siddipet and Medak was the most profitable but the losses are due to the long distance services. However, in recent years the Dubbaka-Tirupati and Dubbaka-Armoor and Vemulavada have been cancelled.

The committee members who pitched their tent in front of the APSRTC bus stand demand the depot back. They organised rasta-roko on all the major junctions of the Siddipet road that falls under the two affected mandals.

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