BENGALURU: Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)'s Commuter Advisory and Facilitation Committee (CAFC) has not met even once since October 2016.The 22-member panel was launched in 2005 with the objective of increasing rapport between the BMTC and bus travellers, implementing corrective action based on feedback and resolving grievances of commuters, employees and citizens.
A member of the committee representing the differently-abled confirmed that the BMTC had not convened a single meeting for the past couple of years. "As the meeting is not being held, panel members have failed to highlight several inconveniences being faced by travellers in the city. BMTC had recently withdrawn Sarathi bus service between Jayanagar and Jambusavari. This caused huge inconvenience to passengers. If the committee had met, we would have forced BMTC officials to re-introduce the service," the member said.
Another member from H S R Layout told The New Indian Express that the committee was an important link between the BMTC and passengers. "Panel members used to get problems of public solved through this platform,'' he said. Another member, who has been in the committee for more than five years, said that the advisory committee will be more helpful for public in the near future as the BMTC is planning to provide last mile bus connectivity to the nearest Metro stations.
"Public continue to share their grievances with us as our contact numbers are still listed on the BMTC's official website (www.mybmtc.com),'' the member said.BMTC officials are, however, not too keen on holding an advisory committee meet in the near future. When contacted, one of them on the condition of anonymity told TNIE that in the age of social media, the need of an advisory committee was not felt much. The threat of the panel getting disbanded also looms large.
"In 2015, we did not have platforms to contact public. Today, the BMTC is on Twitter, Facebook and several other social media sites. They are always flooded with feedback and complaints. Our 24x7 helpline (18004251163) alone gets 450 calls per day. Passengers also share their grievances via IVRS (161),'' said an official.