In TN, free bus passes for the students not distributed till now
Posted on: 28/Sep/2019 10:02:32 AM
The news is school as well as the college students in TN haven’t got their free bus passes. It is now brought out that the state government is yet to distribute these free bus passes for the students. It must be taken into account that these students are harassed by the conductors in the buses.
The students were unhappy with the treatment given to them by the bus conductors and said that the bus conductors were ignoring the transport department’s earlier fiat that students wearing uniforms and having students ID cards would be exempted from buying tickets in the buses. It is revealed that this has resulted in arguments between the ticket checking teams and the bus conductors.
It must not be forgotten that on 9th of September a plus 2 student filed a complaint at the police station that he was harassed an abused by a ticket checking squad at Moolakadai Junction. In their response, the MTC staffs have explained how some miscreants who were not students misuse the provision of free travel in MTC buses by wearing school uniforms.
It was pointed out by Mr. Anbalagan, transport union member that several such cases reported in Chennai in the last 3 months have gone unnoticed. The state transport minister Mr. M.R. Vijayabhaskar earlier said that free smart bus passes would be issued to the students soon but the harsh truth is it has not been done till now. Point is in the year 2018 itself the announcement regarding replacing paper made bus passes with smart cards was made.
Information is passes would not reach the students till the end of October and the conductors should accept the old passes that were distributed in 2018. This was as per an internal circular of MTC. In this academic year, this is third such circular. Mr. Anbalagan later spoke about the purpose of spending Rs 19 crores for the printing of new bus passes would not be achieved as it would be valid for just 5 or 6 months only.
It was later mentioned by a senior official of MTC that delay in providing free bus passes to the students was due to the cancellation of tenders plus due to elaborate talks to integrate them with smart cards that are already being distributed to the students of government schools by the school education department. An official then revealed that new cards would be printed by them and the students could use those cards throughout their academic year.
