S.S. Jamwal
Sir,
State Road Transport buses are plying daily from General Bus Stand Jammu to different places like Srinagar, Pathankot, Amritsar, Jallandhar, Delhi, Jaipur etc. State Govt is incurring huge expenditure for plying these buses on account of Pay and allowances of drivers, cleaners, helpers in addition to other operational charges like repair, cost of diesel, replacement of tyres, Taxes etc. But it has been experienced that Transport Corporation is not earning profit proportionate to the investment made by the Government. There are certain routes where corporation is suffering loss. A common man fails to understand how it is possible that private Bus owners who also ply buses on the above mentioned routes earn profit as it is evident that new buses are added by these owners regularly.
I am a daily commuter and travel by bus to my work place. Yesterday I decided to travel in state road transport bus bound to Pathankot. It was a low floor bus and there were not more than 10 passengers travelling in the bus when I boarded in the bus at General bus stand jammu. These passengers were labourers. I preferred to sit near the driver as I had to drop enroute. While sitting I noticed that the seats and bus floor were/was full of dust including other waste material like wrappers of eatables, pieces of cigarettes/ beedies etc. Window panes were dirty and the dust was settled permanently near windows giving foul smell. Seats were also uncomfortable rather few were torn. The floor dust was entering the lungs while breathing when the bus was running as its both the doors were opened. Upto Bari Brahmna about ten more passengers boarded the bus including four middle aged ladies and four traffic police men. It is pertinent to mention here that there were more than 30 passengers waiting for bus at Bari Brahmna when this bus reached there but only 2-3 old age passengers boarded this bus and others preferred to travel in other private buses. I would like to add that young passengers abandoned the travel in the RTC Bus due to its bad condition. One more interesting thing that I experienced for the first time in my whole life, I would like to share with the public that instead of Bus Conductor the driver was asking the passengers for boarding in as the conductor of the bus appeared to be from the valley and was not aware of the names of the stations falling between Jammu – Pathankot and was simply speaking Pathankot- Pathankot only. Bus driver was frequently asking him to say Vijaypur, Samba, Lakhanpur, Pathankot etc but he was not following.
The most serious thing that I noticed was that the local passengers who travelled upto Bari Brahmna, Vijaypur and other short distances were not given tickets despite paying fare and they were travelling without tickets. Thus it cannot be ensured that the fare so collected from the passengers without issuing them tickets was deposited in the Govt treasury. I also noticed that the traffic policemen travelling in the bus also did not pay fare and neither the bus conductor dared to ask them to pay the fare. Similar condition/situation I experienced about two months back when I travelled in SRTC bus bound for Jammu- Amritsar. Is this one of the reasons that SRTC is running in loss each year. It is learnt that the Corporation has appointed Checkers to check the SRTC buses to ensure that Tickets are issued to all the passengers .I also believe that corporation may have engaged safaikaramcharis to clean the buses or it might be reimbursing the bus Driver/ conductor to meet the expenses on account of cleanliness of the bus regularly but despite that the buses are not cleaned daily and a sensible passenger repent to travel in such bus in future which are health hazardous.
If we really wish that the SRTC earn sufficient profit while plying huge fleet of buses in different states the concerned authorities must keep the buses neat and clean and before deputing for onward journey it is to be ensured by some designated officer that the bus is cleaned and no dust is found on the seats. It must also be ensured that the maintenance of the buses is carried out at regular intervals.
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