MADURAI: Again, capitalising on the holiday demand, gullible passengers are being fleeced by agents of some of the omni-bus operators.
Travellers, who arrived here from Chennai on Saturday, claimed that they had to pay a fancy fare to the operators. Ranging from Rs 1100 per seat (Volvo axle bus), they were charged as high as Rs 1600 for a trip to Madurai. Many passengers, who were employed in Chennai, have come here for Christmas.
Booking agents at the omni-bus stand here said that all the buses from Chennai to Madurai and down south arrived with full complement. Not a single seat/berth was vacant.
Arguing that they had nothing to hide and that private portals quoted the fare charged by different operators, the agents said that when the demand was high, the fare too went up. When the Indian Railways and many airline operators charged fancy prices for the last few seats/berths under tatkal and premium tatkal categories, why was the media critical of omni-buses, they asked. “After all, we are doing a service and collect a sum agreed upon by the passengers,” they maintained.
However, the state transport undertaking (STU) employees charged the omni-bus operators with violating the permit. When the permit was issued for ‘contract’ carriage, the omni buses blatantly violated the rules and operated as ‘stage’ carriage, like the STU buses. The officials concerned too remained mute spectators, they claimed.
For the sake of media publicity, the Transport Department officials impounded a few buses or imposed fines for permit violation or collecting excess fares. The rest of the omni buses were allowed to fleece passengers.
An STU bus collected Rs 325 (ultra deluxe) and Rs 410 (A/c) per seat from Madurai to Chennai and Rs 420 for Madurai-Bengaluru. However, omni-buses charged Rs 650 (non A/c) and Rs 1200 (A/c) for Madurai-Chennai on normal days and fixed higher fares on holidays, said TNSTC Staff Federation’s executive president T. Thirumalaisamy.
“Proliferation of omni-buses plying across the State with permits under Clause 74 of MV Act 1988, plied against the SETC,” said federation treasurer S. Sampath and added that it was created exclusively to commute travelling public to far away places and on intra-State routes. The liberal treatment meted out to omni-buses had visibly diluted the SETC and was against social duty of a state bestowed on it under Article 39 (b)(c) of the Constitution, he noted.
