RTO Seizes 12 Buses for Failure of Conductors to Issue Tickets

RTO Seizes 12 Buses for Failure of Conductors to Issue Tickets

Mangaluru: Don’t let the private buses staff (bus driver and conductor) take you for a ride! Next time if you spot a private bus not halting at designated bus stops, its conductor or driver speaking on mobile or hearing music while driving, or not issuing tickets printed from the electronic ticketing machine, argue with you over fare or change, etc etc, don’t lose your chance to complain to the RTO or Traffic Police. Under the rules of RTO, the concerned authorities are bound to take action against such erring drivers and conductors of private. But many passengers are reluctant to raise their voices or complain, out of fear that they may in trouble or get attacked by the bus staff.

In spite of strict rules implemented by the RTO that the conductors should issue tickets to the passengers using electronic ticketing machine, the bus operators have been ignoring repeated directions to do so. Coming to know about these practices still going on, officials of the Transport Department on Friday swung into action against private city bus operators who failed to introduce electronic ticketing machine and issue tickets to passengers. It is learnt that Inspectors of Motor Vehicles, led by in-charge Senior Regional Transport Officer G.S. Hegde, detained 12 buses for the failure of conductors to issue tickets.

Sources reveal that few buses were released after they produced the necessary documents, while others are still parked in the RTO dept premises. The buses would be released once the operators produce original documents. The RTO has issued strict warning to the offenders that if they are caught again doing such thing again, strict action would be taken against them.The action follows after the department’s repeated directions to issue tickets were not adhered to by the operators. Except a few, conductors in almost all private city buses plying in Mangaluru do not issue tickets to passengers.

Still worse, when passengers insist upon tickets, the conductors just throw a bunch of hand-bill tickets at them, thereby humiliating such passengers. Speaking to media Hegde said that though the department could have acted harshly by detaining many more buses, it did not want to do so keeping in mind the interests of the travelling public. The detention of these 12 buses was a token action warning operators to adhere to the law, he said and added that passenger comfort was paramount for the department too.

It is also learnt that issuing tickets to passengers is mandatory as per the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act and rules made there under. If a passenger is found travelling without ticket, he would be considered an unauthorized passenger. In the event of any accident and resultant injuries or death, such passengers or heirs would not be eligible to get insurance benefits since their travel itself was unauthorized. Such passengers cannot prove that they traveled in a particular bus in the absence of a valid ticket.

So a message from the RTO to the bus passengers is that if the conductor doesn’t issue a ticket from the electronic ticketing machine complain to the officials of RTO department or Traffic Police. Also you can complain if you find buses irregularly lined up on roads, not stopping to alight or board passengers from designated bus stops, a conductor who is busy in his own world not bothering to tender change or facilitate issuing tickets, the person at the wheels who may avoid speaking to passengers while driving but does not mind answering his phone calls.

They are occasions which a daily bus traveler usually encounters but fails to speak up. Why bother, some may well think, while other commuters are too preoccupied to take notice, tired and helpless as they are wading through the endless sea of co-passengers or even cautiously seeking to avoid the greasy, grimy seats and handle bars on every corner. But try the best you can, and complain so that these bus drivers and conductors could straighten up their acts.