Mysuru: Following the deployment of hundreds of KSRTC buses for election duty — to ferry polling staff and materials — public were put to hardship as they had to wait for hours together for buses to reach their respective destinations yesterday.

Today being the voting day for the State Assembly elections, KSRTC buses were deployed to ferry Polling Booth Officers and Staff from their respective Mustering Centre to the assigned Polling Booth yesterday.

Though the KSRTC officials had said that public will not be affected with the deployment of buses to election work, today also people were seen waiting for buses at bus stops for hours blaming the authorities for the inconvenience. The Election Commission has hired 402 KSRTC buses of Mysuru depot to ferry Polling personnel and equipment to the Polling Stations across the district. According to the commuters, there were only a few buses plying towards Hassan, Madikeri, K.R. Nagar, Periyapatna and other places. A large number of people from rural Mysuru depend on the KSRTC buses for travelling.

As the services were affected, the KSRTC put into service 30 city buses to ferry passengers to Bengaluru, Malavalli, Mandya and other places. KSRTC officials claimed that they deployed the buses based on the requirement. “Sufficient number of buses were plying to all destinations from Mysuru city. There might be inconvenience for a few hours, but the service was normal from evening. We deployed city buses to ferry passengers to rural Mysuru,” an officer said.