belagavi following the increasing rush in ksrtc buses after the launch of the shakti scheme the students and public are facing much inconvenience students of various schools and colleges have been protesting in different parts of the district seeking more busessince the implementation of the scheme the government buses are packed with women passengers it is noteworthy that the buses travelling to religious places are 90 per cent occupied by women passengersthousands of buses ply daily on 4500 routes from eight depots in belagavi division and 4466 routes from seven depots in chikodi division although the rule allows only a maximum of 55 passengers in a bus it is not being followed anywhere government and private employees are also struggling to attend work on time two days ago the students protested in many places in belagavi district allegedly against the improper bus services due to the scheme abvp leader ravi said the students travelling on the chennamma university route are facing problems due to lack of buses students coming to schools and colleges from different places such as khanapur hudali yamakanmaradi bailahongal mannikeri tigadi are not able to attend classes properly we have appealed to the transport department officials that this mess should be rectified he saidprasad a leader of the student organisation in chikodi zone said most of the children coming from rural areas including exambashamanewadi are suffering from bus traffic problems those who have to attend school at 10 am reach there at 12 pm this problem needs to be solved soon this will become even worse in the coming days it would be extremely difficult to deal with such problems during the examination periodstudent leader ranjeet salunke said that no one will object if women use 50 per cent of the seats but the remaining 50 per cent should be reserved for men and students if such a system is implemented it will facilitate students to reach educational institutions smoothly he saidmeanwhile transport department officials say that although there is a shortage of buses and staff they try to run buses on all routes without fail we are running buses on local routes by cancelling 20 interstate buses if the students inform us about the routes where there is a shortage of buses all measures will be taken to address the issue said an official