Transport corp accused of relegating rickety old buses for rural routes.
Following the incident of a Belur bound bus from Sakleshpur plunging into the Vishnusamudra lake, killing eight passengers and injuring 52 others, on Tuesday, protestors from Belur and Sakleshpur blocked the road to the KSRTC depot in Sakleshpur on Wednesday, in a bid to stop buses from rolling out.
The protestors accused the KSRTC of being negligent towards providing safe buses for people in rural areas.
“We are not protesting only for the people who died in Belur, but the very attitude of the KSRTC for scheduling vehicles that were fit to be condemned or de-commissioned from service,” said Rajappa, leader of the protestors.
“The Sakleshpur depot had only limited fleet of vehicles, of which, all the best buses were sent to Bangalore, Chikmagalur, Madikeri, Hassan and Mangalore routes, while the battered vehicles were sent to Belur, Halebid, Alur and other rural places. This discrimination cannot be tolerated anymore,” Rajappa said.
Taking cue from the agitation at Sakleshpur, dna made a fact check about the maintenance schedule at divisional depots of Mangalore, Hassan and Chikmagalur and Puttur. It found that 30% of the vehicles have already done over 6 lakh kilometres and were relegated to rural services, while newer buses in Rajahamsa and Suvarna Karnataka Sarige brands and express schedules were being sent on routes with better roads.
“While we do not grudge KSRTC reserving their best vehicles for long distance services, we do feel let down when we have to travel in battered buses on pothole ridden roads in rural areas. KSRTC is a government organisation and it cannot discriminate between the class of passengers. Even rural passengers are entitled for safer and well maintained buses, if not luxury vehicles,” Deveerappa, a regular traveler from Sakleshpur to Belur told dna.
Managing director of KSRTC, N Manjunath, told dna that KSRTC has the youngest fleet in the country among all state run road transport corporations. The average age of a bus is 3.49 years, as per a report from the ministry of road and surface transport, he said.
“Every year, we scrap 650 buses of all classes and induct not less than 1000 new vehicles. The younger the fleet, more profits for the corporation and better buses for the passengers. I have ordered an investigation of the ill fated bus which is now in the Belur police station” he said.
According to sources in the Sakleshpur depot, the log sheet of the bus did not show any problems. “We have a daily log sheet where the driver who takes the vehicle on the route are required to fill up various parameters. One of the parameters is the mechanical problems with the bus. But the log sheet of the bus that fell into the ditch did not show any problems with the brake or the steering,” Manjunath said.
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