Flash strike by BMTC staff inconveniences commuters

Commuters in the western parts of the City were inconvenienced on Friday afternoon when about 90 buses from Sumanhalli depot of the Bangaloe Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) did not ply following a flash protest by 150-odd drivers and conductors of the Western Division.

High drama was witnessed at the depot after the line checking staff of the BMTC issued a memo to a bus driver and a conductor for their alleged misbehaviour with them recently.

On April 15, during routine checking on route number 401-M Yeshwantpur-Kengeri, conductor Jagadeesh was asked about some accounting of tickets and he was unable to produce the account following which he was issued a memo. However, he refused to accept it and misbehaved with the staff. 

At this point, the checking staff asked driver Gopalakrishna to initial as witness to the incident which he flatly refused.

After the incident, he did not even provide the checking staff with the log sheet which is an official document. Later, when the driver was issued a memo, he refused to accept it.

After the checking staff made a detailed report of the incident and submitted it to the Divisional Controller, Western Division, a few days ago, the driver-conductor duo was placed under suspension on Friday.

The staff got agitated and protested against the suspension orders stating that driver was not at fault and his suspension should be revoked.

Consequently, buses on K R Market, Mysore Road, Kengeri and Yelahanka routes from Sumanahalli depot did not ply for over three hours leaving the afternoon commuters hassled.