Hyderabad: After the government accepted that the tragic Kondagattu accident had occurred due to overcrowding of the bus, there are random checks being conducted by the Road Transport Officers in some districts of Telangana to check overcrowding in the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses.
This has evoked a mixed reaction amongst the different unions. Where some of the organisations are happy that at least this will create a sense of fear and eventually control overcrowding, some unions argue that it is hardly the fault of the drivers and conductors if there is insufficient number of buses running on the routes. In a system where they are given incentives for higher occupancy, it is natural for them to load the buses, defend the unions.
In one such random check by the Road Transport Officer (RTO) Mr Badrunaik, at Mahabubabad, a bus was travelling with 139 passengers from Jayyaram mandal to Mahabubabad. After the check, the driver’s licence has been cancelled and conductor was given a showcause notice on Wednesday.
There was always a cap over number of passengers to be ferried in the buses. According to the Motor Vehicles Act, the maximum limit of an Express bus is 50+1, Palle velugu bus 56+1, ordinary city buses 43+1, Metro Express 50+1. However, in most of the situations the buses are overcrowded with 80 to 90 additional passengers boarding the bus.
Mr Vinod K. Kanumala, chief functionary, Indian Federation of Road Safety said, “These kind of checks should be done more frequently on the state run buses by the RTO, which helps reducing the overcrowded buses. Especially in remote areas, as people don’t mind being in an overcrowded bus as they just want to reach their place of work. The shortage of buses will add to the chaos but the lack of transportation should not be a cause for loss of life.”
However, some of the driver unions opine that depending on the population of the area, the number of buses should be allotted by the government so that overcrowding is checked.
Mr N. Srinivas, president, Telangana Mazdoor Union, Greater Hyderabad, said, “In many remote areas there are not enough bus services. Passengers wait for hours to get into a bus. When a bus comes they push into the vehicle and they are even ready to stand. Why is it a driver’s fault? How can we even stop people from getting into the bus in those times? Is it not the responsibility of the government to increase the number of buses? Besides, there are incentives from the corporation towards high occupancy ratio.”
