Disability bus pass holders in Bengaluru struggle with renewal and server issues

Bengaluru: Despite the extension of the validity of the annual bus passes for people with disabilities, some bus commuters in the city claimed to have faced conductor questioning when they showed them recently expired bus passes to commute. 

The annual disability passes issued by the KSRTC are valid until December every year and can be renewed between January 1 and February 28 of the next year. During this interim renewal period, a circular issued by the KSRTC directs conductors to treat the expired passes held by the beneficiaries as valid until the end of February, by which time, they must renew their passes for the new year. On paper, however, the validity of the disability pass is still printed out as January to December. 

However, some people with disabilities told DH that a few conductors, possibly unaware of this grace period, demanded them to pay up or alight from the buses, claiming that their passes were invalid. 

SSP Iyer, a public-sector banker and resident of Malleshwaram, who has a hearing disability, claimed that one of the buses that he took to his workplace in Yeshwantpur on Monday did the same. “When the renewal period is from January to the end of February, how can one apply for renewal even before the pass expires,” he asked. 

Manjunath, a resident of Anekal, faced similar issues in the past. “I have been asked to pay or leave the bus but I have firmly stood my ground by refusing to do either. That is the only solution,” he said. 

This lack of awareness by conductors is coupled with server issues. “The Seva Sindhu server has been down for many days. I visited the BangaloreOne offices in both Malleswaram and Rajajinagar for help with renewal but the website is not working,” Iyer said. 

When DH checked the Seva Sindhu portal for the bus passes on Thursday, the website suffered from server issues and did not connect. 

G Ravi, a disability rights activist and head of disability programmes at the Fourth Wave Foundation, said that since the default extension period was required for all pass holders to renew their passes, conductors could not refuse older passes. “Passengers travelling in the interim renewal period can carry a photocopy of their older pass certified by the bus depot manager. If refused, they can appeal to the disability commissioner or the KSRTC bus depot manager,” he said. 

Across all four transport services, roughly 1.3 lakh passes were issued to people with disabilities last year, said a senior KSRTC official, who added that such complaints were not brought to the notice of any official.