Bus Conductor & Passenger Argument Over ‘Chillare’ (Change) goes Viral on Social Media?
Mangaluru: If you are an average person travelling in Mangaluru, whichever mode of transport you opt for, can be a daunting task. If you choose to travel by your own personal vehicle, haphazard traffic and the moon-craters called pot-holes only make sure your stress levels rise meteorically. Then, there are some who choose to take the public transport-either the private city buses or the govt run city buses. But the worst part travelling in these city buses, you never know whether you will get yelled or abused- and here is one example that happened few hours ago- where there was a heated argument between the bus conductor of a govt city bus and a passenger- and the incident recorded on a smartphone camera has gone viral on social media.
The govt city bus bearing reg no KA 42 F 1919 plying between State Bank and Kavoor route, where you can witness a argument going on between the passenger and the bus conductor, regarding returning the change back after paying for the ticket. But the arrogant bus conductor is seen abusing the passenger, and even threatening him of all sorts of consequences. Wow- “Bale Right Poi” kind of drama, which needs to be addressed by the police commissioner and other traffic police authorities on such kind of rude behaviour and attitude, both by the private and government run city buses.
If you look at this incident, there’s one probably happening every single day, between the bus conductor and passengers, either on charging over on ticket price, or not issuing tickets or silly issues like “Chillare”(Change) issues. Every Friday, during the Police Commissioner phone-in programme such complaints are quite common, and there’s no end to it, as it looks like, in spite of cops issuing warning or taking action. This incident clearly shows an example of violence and arguments on buses as a common routine. There have been incidents on how passengers were ill-treated for not having change; some were thrown out and others were verbally abused.
Recently, I read a story, among the more extreme cases have been a techie put in jail after she physically assaulted the bus conductor (leading to him being deaf in one ear) or a bus rerouted to the police station over two rupees. So who is to blame? Is the onus on the passengers, to always have exact change, or on the conductor to provide change? So in this case that happened in Mangaluru, is it because of the reason that conductors are always reluctant to part with change is because their department does not provide them with change. So once again whose fault is it- whether conductor having not enough change or the passenger not giving the right change towards ticket purchase.
So do you think that there was no use being angry at bus conductors, who were equally a victim of their company/management for not providing enough loose change. This is indeed a nightmarish situation for all involved, and a solution needs to be implemented as soon as possible. So what would be the solution for this? How about introducing change vending machines, “ticket-less travel” and smart cards. Until then, I guess the passenger-conductor struggle will continue to prevail. It is high-time that private and govt bus authorities get serious, and introduce a mechanism for both passengers and conductors have access to change disbursal. Till then, all of you commuters taking the bus to reach your destination, be mentally prepared for yourselves for combat mode, before entering a City bus?.