What winds the Dharamshala commuters most?

(Representational Image)

By Shalini Thakur

Dharamshala: "I think public transport here in Dharamshala is painful. Why would you get on a  Bus that doesn't leave to wherever you want it to head to, doesn't start wherever you want it to start from, and doesn’t stop at where you want it to stop?”, says Preshita Thakur, a daily commuting student at CUHP,who has to travel from Gahlian, a small village near Ranital in Kangra.

There are 3906 villages in Kangra, most of which are not have proper bus services. Many villages have just a couple of buses plying to them daily. When they stops operations unexpectedly, due to bad weather or some other uncertain circumstances , people in these villages and students suffer. Other modes of public transport are not affordable for most.

 ”Buses are our principal mode of public transport to nearby places", says Kuldeep Chand(64), an old man who lives in Dari in the outskirts of Dharamshala with his family. However, bus rides are not always a pleasant experience for him. Bus drivers and conductors often behave rudely or use abusive language, complaints Kuldeep. Elderly people like Kuldeep who suffers from Arthritis and other ailments, finds it difficult to enter and exit a vehicle. "One day when I pleaded to a conductor to give some extra time to get down from the bus, he shouted at me", says Kuldeep.

 “The day I was about to hire a taxi to Indrunag, the taxi driver pitched a price of 300 Rupees, I was totally shocked," says Umang Arora who hails from Jalandhar, but presently stays in Dharamshala for her studies. Umang complaints that she has come across several taxi drivers in Dharamshala who demand exorbitant charges from their passengers.

However, taxi drivers in Dharamshala have their own woes to deal with. The daily rise in fuel prices has made a dent to their daily earnings. “It is difficult if the taxi is your only source of income” Kamlesh Kumar explains. Kamlesh Kumar is a local taxi driver in Dharamshala, who lives with his family in Garoh, a village nearby. He says it is a hard task to maintain a taxi in Dharamshala. "Honestly, the petrol prices affect us very much. Servicing and repairing the vehicle from time to time also affect us and it becomes very difficult to survive when you are the only source of income in your family," says Kamlesh.

People like Umang, who are from cities where app-based taxi services are ubiquitous, finds their absence in Dharamshala bizarre. “App-based taxis back home were very convenient as they can be availed at any time, at any route based on our convenience. Drivers can not demand excessive rates too”, she adds.