———S. A. Hemanth——–
Bengaluru, March 11: In September 2020, a KSRTC bus parked at Yermaras in Raichur district caught fire suddenly. The driver and the conductor suffered severe injuries but fortunately it was not fatal.
The employees union office bearers submitted a memorandum to Transport Minister B. Sriramulu and requested him to make arrangements for the drivers and conductors place to sleep and rest.
Even the BMTC employees Union also joined and submitted a joint memorandum. For next 24 months, Sriramulu slept over those memorandum and did nothing.
“Yesterday’s tragedy at Lingadheeranahalli under Byadarahalli police station limits where a conductor was charred to death should act as an eye-opener atleast now,” General Secretary of the Employees Union Anand says.
The BMTC has a very strange practice. The drivers and conductors are asked to sleep inside the bus overnight. Otherwise, they will be fined and charge-sheet. “This is ridiculous as well as meaningless. There is no reason why the drivers and conductors are required to sleep inside the bus. The authorities need to make some arrangements for us to take rest,” says Parashivamurthy, a driver of BMTC said.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a depot manager said, “Drivers and conductors are asked to sleep inside the bus as a safety measure for the bus.”
But the drivers and conductors dismiss this theory. “We can always park the bus near the police station and go to the testing place. If at all anybody wants to take away the bus, they can attack us and take away. The authorities need to think on this important issue,” another conductor, Shivalinge Gowda said.
Senior officials of the transport department and KSRTC say that the minister Sriramulu was never serious on running the department in a professional manner.
“He (Sriramulu) was more bothered to get the post of Deputy Chief Minister and some other department. This is height of irresponsibility,” an official added.
EOM
