Karnataka

Why are Bengaluru's BMTC buses insisting on identity cards?

Written by : Nayantara N.

On Tuesday, as four labourers in Bengaluru boarded a bus onward to their work, they were in for a rude shock as they were forced to disembark the bus since they did not carry an identity card. To add to their misery, these labourers had spent all their money in buying the passes and now could not buy even a ticket. The new BMTC bus rules for daily pass mandates that the passengers must carry an ID card for both issuance of a daily pass and also to valid it. The labourers had been issued the pass by a conductor in the previous bus who neither asked for an ID card nor did he inform them about the new rules.  This new move has caused inconvenience to many passengers since many often don’t carry an identity card. An elderly passenger also demanded that these rules need to be relaxed since they don’t carry ID cards at all times. Commenting on this, Assistant Traffic Superintendent at Majestic M Nagappa said: “The initiative to mandatorily carry ID cards is so prevent the practice of the daily passes being passed on to others therefore causing a loss in our revenue.” He says the confusion is caused due to the lack of proper communication since many bus conductors were on long leaves and had just reported to work and were still not familiar with the new rules.  A large number of labourers and daily wage workers from across the state and country come to the city in search of jobs.  They rely mostly on bus services to commute and often do have no identity cards therefore causing much inconvenience. The BMTC accepts voter ID, PAN card, driving license, student ID or any valid ID for the issuance of a pass, he said. The BMTC offers its own BMTC ID card for Rs 25 with a validity of one year and three years for Rs 100 which serves as identity card even for the issuance of monthly passes.

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