BENGALURU: The core members of #BusBhagyaBeku, the latest campaign from the Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) and Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike (BBPV), met BMTC managing director Ekroop Caur on Wednesday to share citizen’s concerns and demands.
The campaign was launched to demand that the government sanction double the BMTC fleet and halve the ticket fares in the budget.
Srinivas Alavilli of CfB said, “The BMTC executives were appreciative of the public demand to double the bus count, and accepted the need to make it more affordable, especially for labourers, garment factory workers, sanitation and janitorial staff, security staff and dailywage workers.
They recognized that the citizen-led #BusBhagyaBeku campaign’s demand that Chief Minister Siddaramiah allocate subsidies for BMTC to cover some costs and expenditure, including taxes and salaries, to provide leeway for fare reduction and increase of fleet, is in solidarity with BMTC’s own requirements.”
Voicing similar opinion, another member, Tara Krishnaswamy, said, “The CfB and BBPV are hopeful that given the alarming traffic and pollution, and with buses being the only mass transit system across the length and breadth of the city, the CM will make sizeable grants towards BMTC.
Such a move will positively impact the majority of the population in the last state budget exercise before the election cycle.”
Shraddha Srinath of U-Turn fame, Bruce Lee Mani, lead vocalist of rock band Thermal and a Quarter and Ashwin Sharma, classical singer, among others will take a bus on Saturday to create awareness for #BusBhagyaBeku.