Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation on Friday demolished the Sreekaryam bus waiting area outside the College of Engineering where students had protested sitting on each other's laps to oppose miscreants who damaged the shed in an apparent attempt to stop boys and girls from hanging out there.

Mayor Arya Rajendran said a new gender-neutral bus waiting centre would be built at the same place.

The students held the sit-on-lap protest on July 2. The students had alleged that the miscreants damaged the waiting shed as part of moral policing.

To stop students from hanging out there, miscreants had cut short the long steel bench in the waiting shed, making it almost impossible for two people to sit side by side.

The seating was also reduced to three chairs kept at a distance. Students used to regularly face opposition and even abuse from locals when male and female students sat there; therefore, they weren't shocked by the hostile act.

The students' protest went viral on social media forcing Mayor Arya Rajandran to announce the construction of a new waiting shed.