The wrong news flashed by a few satellite television channels about the health condition of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa triggered panic and chaos among the public on Monday evening.
Bus services were suddenly stopped and all shops closed. Those who were returning home, especially the students, suffered a lot.
After a couple of satellite television channels wrongly flashed the news about Jayalalithaa’s condition around 5.30 p.m., almost all city and mofussil buses went off the road suddenly even as traders hurriedly downed shutters of their business establishments. Though the situation improved an hour later with number of buses resuming service, the traders were not prepared to take the risk. Consequently, the people suffered a lot in buying the essential commodities.
However, bus services, especially to suburbs were stopped around 7 p.m. while the State Express Transport Corporation buses going to places, including Chennai, were seen taking passengers at the Vaeinthaankulam new bus-stand, where all the traders had closed down their shops immediately after the television channels wrongly beamed the news.
Similarly, long queues were seen at almost all fuel stations around 6.30 p.m.
