The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), in a press release issued here on Monday, has said that if its employees had problems, they should report to the Managing Director and the concerned Divisional Controller.
In a rejoinder issued with regard to a lightning strike called by the crew of depot 31 (Sumanahalli ) on Friday, the BMTC said that it is a public utility service and that such incidents would damage the BMTC’s image and cause “tremendous difficulty to the travelling public”.
Two drivers and two conductors of route numbers 401M/34 and 401K/25 were served memos for failing to show the sale of 53 and 11 tickets respectively.
Both offences were treated as “red mark cases”. In both cases, the crews refused to take the offence memo and in one instance even behaved arrogantly with the checking inspectors.
The crew of route no. 401K/25 did not allow the checking inspectors to alight from the bus from the Nanjappa Circle , thereby causing great hardship to the passengers . The employees were placed under suspension pending enquiry.
On Friday, two crew members organised a lightning strike by closing the main gate of the depot and obstructed the other crew members’ way to duty and demanded revocation of the suspension order and that the Divisional Controller (DC) should come to the spot.
The DC rushed to Depot 31 and assured them the issues would resolved. However, the provoked crew created unpleasant situation and Suresh, the driver of the DC’s car, was beaten by the mob which was on the strike.
The conductors and drivers have been placed under suspension pending enquiry in accordance with the rules of BMTC and not with any bad intention or harassment, said the press release.
