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A bus conductor with the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has been suspended from service following allegations that he verbally abused and harassed a Class 12 student and denied her a zero-fare ticket on a Priyadarshini bus.
The Priyadarshini Scheme is a Kerala government initiative that provides free bus travel to women and transgender persons on designated ordinary KSRTC buses. Under the scheme, conductors issue zero-fare tickets through electronic ticketing machines to record the passenger’s journey.
The incident took place on a Priyadarshini limited-stop bus operating on the Guruvayur-Ernakulam route. According to reports, the student, who had trimmed her hair after a trip to Tirupati, asked for a zero-fare ticket, but the conductor allegedly refused to issue one. He also allegedly questioned her gender in front of other passengers, asking them whether she “looked like a woman”.
Speaking to Asianet News, the student said she was travelling with four friends, who were issued zero-fare tickets without any difficulty. “The conductor didn't give me the zero ticket. Even after I told him that I was a girl, he did not listen to me. He said he could not open my dress and check whether I was a girl or not. He then called everyone around and asked them, pointing at me, ‘Is she looking like a girl?’” she said.
She said the conductor later issued her a regular ticket and asked her to pay the fare. “He told me that he had already entered the ticket and I had to pay that amount. Then we got off the bus before our stop,” she said.
The student also alleged that some passengers behaved badly towards her and her friends and made inappropriate remarks.
Following a formal police complaint at the Paravur police station, the KSRTC Vigilance Wing conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident. The inquiry found serious misconduct and lapses in the conductor’s behaviour, following which the KSRTC chairman ordered his immediate suspension.