COIMBATORE: People with disabilities (PwDs) in the city have expressed deep anguish over free bus passes. Instead of renewing and issuing new free bus passes, the government has merely extended the validity of old passes until the end of this year, putting users at a disadvantage.
The beneficiaries attached to the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) said they face issues whenever they travel in government buses using the free bus pass, and they now have to show the extension order to explain the delay in getting a new, revised bus pass.
"The transport corporation employees need to be clearly informed about the bus pass extension. New bus passes must also be issued quickly, otherwise, this problem will not be resolved," said P Manoharan, Project Director of NFB.
The state government is taking steps to issue free travel bus passes for PwDs online. This new system was already implemented in 2023 in Chennai and other districts operated by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd. In other districts, the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TneGA) will develop software and implement the system, official sources said.
Due to ongoing conversion works, the state transport department recently announced that instead of renewing bus passes for the current year, beneficiaries can continue using old passes until December 31, 2025. However, PwDs say that extending the validity is causing difficulties.
"Just as we have been informed about the extension, bus conductors and drivers should also be made aware. Many times, we are treated inappropriately assuming that we are trying to travel free with an expired bus pass. There have even been incidents where beneficiaries were forced to get off the bus midway," Manoharan added.
When asked, officials from the Department of Welfare of Differently-Abled Persons said that in the past seven months, this is the fourth consecutive time the old bus passes have been extended with instructions to continue using them. Due to a lack of proper awareness among some government bus conductors, unnecessary arguments arise, causing embarrassment to the beneficiaries.
"In Coimbatore district alone, around 1,600 PwDs use these passes. All of them have been granted extensions up to December 2025. However, temporary and outsourced employees lack clarity. We have informed TNSTC officials about this through the district collector. Steps are being taken to issue online bus passes to everyone at the earliest," said Chandramohan, Differently-Abled Welfare Officer for Coimbatore.