Karnataka: KSRTC Federation Urges CM To Implement 'Free Bus Travel For All Women' Guarantee, Cites Staff -Passengers Fights Over Refusing To Pay Up

Citing multiple instances of women passengers refusing to pay the fare and entering in to heated arguments with the bus staff , KSRTC Staff and Workers' Federation has written a letter to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urging him to quickly implement the Congress party's manifesto promise of free travel to women in government buses. 

The five guarantees by the Congress as part of its manifesto include the provision of 200 units of free power to every household, Rs 2,000 per month allowance to the women head of families, Rs 3,000 for graduates unemployed for up to two years after graduation and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders, 10 kg of free rice to all members of BPL homes, and free bus travel for women.

In the run up to the election, the Congress announced promise of free travel to all women in government buses. It was termed as the 'fifth guarantee'.

Here is the full text of the letter (roughly translated) by the federation to the CM Siddaramaiah

"We heartily congratulate you for being elected as the Chief Minister of the state. We believe that the promises and assurances you have made in the election manifesto have reached the minds of the people across the state and hence have blessed you with the helm of the state for the next five years.

We are aware that no government can meet all the promises made in the manifesto immediately after coming to power. However, it is necessary to implement the assurances without further adjournment.

For example, one of the promises was to provide free bus travel in the government run transport corporations to all women soon after the party wins a majority. Naturally women are expecting to reap the benefits of free travel after your government won the polls.

From the information that we have got on ground is that women across parts of the state are forcing the bus conductors to allow them to travel without paying any fare. Due to this, there are arguments and brawls between the passengers and the transport corporation staff.

This isn’t a good sign.

Therefore, we urge you to quickly take a decision at the government level in allowing the women passengers and instruct the concerned boards accordingly.

With respect to implementing above decision, we request you for an appropriate estimate of the expenses that would be incurred on the state transportation boards in implementing the above mentioned decision and release the advance grants to the concerned departments. "