Bengaluru: The coming assembly election in May will see thousands of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses being deployed for election duty.
The KSRTC officials have assured that this would not cause inconvenience to passengers.
According to a senior KSRTC officer, around 4,000 buses will be deployed for election duty in May and a request for this has already been made by the departments concerned.
“The buses will be deployed two days before the elections to transport men and material to polling booths. After the election, they will drop back the personnel and shift the EVMs to counting centres. For now they have asked for two days - a day before the election and on election day, if they want for more day they will have to submit a request letter again,” the officer added.
Another official said that tentatively they will be charging Rs 10,000 per bus for a single day.
When asked the official if the passengers will face inconvenience due to lack of buses, he said, “Passengers will be our priority and it is only after ensuring that there are sufficient buses plying to all the destinations across the state, we will deploy buses for election duty. For poll duty KSRTC will mainly use buses on private contracts and which are used for wedding and other purposes. Buses will also be provided for the police personnel.”
A KSRTC driver who has been on election duty for many year said on condition of anonymity, “Even two months before announcement of elections, we are asked to not to take leaves and thus we may not be able to cast our votes. Every time, they post us for election duty, we have to travel away from our homes and do not get a chance to exercise our franchise, which is unfair. This time we raised the issue, so the Election Commission is making arrangements for postal ballots for us.”
