In utter disregard for the State government’s directive to honour bus passes, several cases of private drivers insisting on cash payments continued to come to light on Thursday. In fact, right under the nose of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation officials, a vehicle carried the sign ‘Bus Passes Not Allowed’.
The 90L bus from Chengicherla bus depot carrying the sign was spotted at the Jubilee Bus Station on Thursday ahead of the dharna by striking TSRTC employees.
Touching upon the issue, an officer who did not wish to be identified said, “We are finding it difficult to control some of the private conductors and drivers. Despite our counselling, some are not listening to us. For instance, if we tell an erring driver not to report to duty henceforth, he goes to another depot. There are 29 depots in the city. It becomes difficult for us to circulate a photo of the errant driver to all depots. It is difficult to track such drivers”. The situation was not rosy in the the western part of the city. Commuters aboard a bus traversing the 195 route said a serious argument broke out between the conductor and the driver over collection of fare. “I got on the bus near IIIT/DLF bus stop to go to Bachupally. The argument about fare collection broke out at around 6.45 p.m. They took the full fare, but refused to go all the way to Bachupally. We had to get down midway. What is this? They are giving passengers so much trouble,” a commuter said. Another commuter pointed out that the 194H bus from Miyapur depot charged ₹20 extra for a trip from JNTU to VBIT. The officials promised to take action against errant private conductors and drivers. All attempts to reach the TSRTC Executive Director (Operations), E. Yadagiri, for a comment on the issue did not yield a response.
