Panic button: Taxi, bus owners have a bunch of questions

Transport associations have dubbed the Karnataka government’s order to instal panic buttons and tracking devices in all public and private transport vehicles as hasty and unnecessary. The initiative is geared towards the safety of passengers, especially women and children, and to prevent accidents.

They say the government should first set up the emergency control centre and demonstrate how it will respond to cases before asking vehicle owners to buy these devices. They are also questioning the price gap. The government empanelled vendors are allowed to charge Rs 7,599 (excluding GST) while cheaper ones are available in the market for Rs 4,500 or less, they say.

An RTO official said this order doesn’t apply to autorickshaws yet.

‘Show us it works’

Expressing his scepticism, Tanveer Pasha, president, Ola Uber Driver’s and Owner’s Association, asked: “Who will operate the control centre? Police or some third party? What will happen if a passenger presses the panic button by mistake? Will drivers be taught how to diffuse a false alarm? Bengaluru police are understaffed, how swift will their response be? What is the SOP (standard operating procedure)?”

Even Nataraj Sharma, president, Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association, is unsure about the emergency response system. “If a passenger presses the panic button on a bus with an all-India tourist permit, which state or jurisdiction’s police will spring into action? How will that be co-ordinated?” he asks. 

‘Govt should bear cost’

Tanveer says vehicles operating under Ola and Uber are required to instal panic buttons and location tracking devices but in reality, that’s not the case. “They (aggregator companies) had fitted the devices only on some vehicles at the time of licensing,” he alleges.

He says cab aggregators should foot this additional cost, not vehicle owners. Others are of the view that the government should bear the cost.

‘Short on supply’

Nataraj says the government identified Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are allowed to charge more than what these devices cost in the market. “Who can explain this cost difference? In a bus, six panic buttons have been mandated. This will cost us Rs 11,000,” he rues.

He says there are over 8 lakh private vehicles in the state and 13 OEMs are too few to meet the demand. “I called up an OEM in Rajajinagar recently. He said they were out of stock,” he says.

‘Unnecessary’

Over 25,000 employee and school shuttle buses and 50,000 taxis come under the Karnataka State Travel Operators’ Association. Its president Radhakrishna Holla claims all of them are equipped with a GPS tracker and that background verification of all drivers has been done. The 2005 rape and murder of BPO employee Prathibha Srikanth Murthy in Bengaluru had prompted corporate companies to beef up the security for women employees, says Radhakrishna.

“Given that these vehicles have GPS devices and CCTV cameras are installed at major signals, this order seems unnecessary. Installing the panic button in ride-hailing vehicles makes sense but in the case of employee shuttles, passengers are known and verified,” he says.

WHAT THE ORDER SAYS

A Karnataka transport department order dated November 23 says all public transport vehicles and national-permit goods vehicles must instal an emergency panic button and vehicle location tracking device between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2024.
RTO authorities have been asked not to renew the fitness certificates of non-compliant vehicles