JOIN USLoyal commuters losing faith
In an effort to curtail the malady of reselling of the daily bus passes, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has introduced the 'BMTC Loyalty Card' in addition to the daily pass. This will, to a large extent, ease the commuters’ anxiety.
The authorities have further divided the passes into two categories. To get a daily pass, priced at Rs 35, commuters have to first buy a 'BMTC Loyalty Card' (or BMTC ID card), priced at Rs 25. This is valid for a year. Once the commuter buys the loyalty card, he or she has to enter the BMTC Loyalty Card number on the pass to make it non-transferable.
The daily pass and ID card will have to be flashed whenever one boards the bus. To secure the second category of passes, the commuters need not have the 'BMTC Loyalty Card', but then they will have to pay Rs 40 extra to hold a daily pass.
The BMTC authorities claim that nearly 20 per cent of the issued passes are re-sold everyday, particularly on the outskirts of the City. In order to check the reselling and catch the culprits, the BMTC has deployed 100 police personnel to patrol the City. And they agree that the reselling of daily passes has decreased after the introduction of the new policy.
“The daily passes are resold once the destination is reached. We are trying our best to curb the menace. We also intend to levy high amount of penalty on both the reseller and the buyer," Kalegowda, a BMTC official told Metrolife.
The danger lies when the bus pass worth Rs 40 is resold. This has no ID card number and hence goes unnoticed. Shrinivas, who is working in a security agency, feels that photo identity cards help curb the malpractice to some extent and he thinks that the price hike is not a solution to control this illegal activity.
“Even if you make it Rs 60, the culprits will continue with their job. Instead of burdening the people, the authorities must make all efforts to educate the masses about such malpractices. Buying Rs 40 worth bus pass everyday is a costly affair and no one will benefit from it if the reselling continues,” he opines.
Santosh, an engineering student says it's causing a lot of problems. “I use the daily pass because buying tickets is expensive. But now getting an ID card is not an easy task either. We have to arrange for photographs and stand in long queue to get the BMTC Loyaly cards. It is troublesome to flash the ID cards everytime we enter the bus,” he says. “During the process, there is also a possibility of falling prey to pickpockets,” adds Arjun, another student.
Satish Kumar, a student at NIIT says that it is burdensome for those who travel often. “The authorities must chalk out better plan to curb the menace. The new scheme was introduced without prior intimation to the commuter. This results in a clash between the conductor and traveller almost everyday. The culprits must be severely punished,” he says.