BENGALURU: Every year, renewing or applying for a bus pass is a harrowing experience for students. They are irked with the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) for not extending the deadline, and also for being forced to pay the price of a full ticket for no fault of theirs. “Why can’t they use the Student Achievement Track System (SATS) provided by the education department and go ahead with issuing the passes?” asks Ramamani Nagaraj, a parent from Yelahanka.
According to parents, at the start of the year, BMTC’s managing director N V Prasad had said that the department had learnt from previous mistakes and would ensure seamless distribution of cards at various points. However, this has not happened, said Vinay Srinivas, an activist.
“Why should children pay for the pass or parents spend money commuting all the way to the depot when the fault is with the BMTC?” questioned Vinay.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Associated Management of Private Schools (KAMS) has written a letter to the BMTC and BTC bus depots requesting them to extend the deadline for renewal and for new passes. They have also mentioned that the software developed as part of Sarva Shikshana Abhyana - SATS (Student Achievement Tracking System - has all the necessary data of the children, including their photographs and school names. “There is a number generated for each child only after the enrolment process at their respective schools has been completed.
This data is intact at all government-aided private schools. When this software is linked to the BMTC portal, they can match the number there and can easily find details of students. Why should the student run around?” read the letter written by the general secretary, KAMS.
A parent, Shri Harsha, who had gone to Shantinagar depot, said he had to bring his child all the way from Hesarghatta by getting a full day pass of almost `100 each to reach Shantinagar. “For a `600 pass, we have to spend `400 to get it renewed. We request BMTC to not only extend the deadline, but also sort out this problem soon,” he said. Meanwhile, M V Prasad assured that students’ pleas will be heard and they will also resolve the problems soon. He also explained that this year, BMTC has established 92 centres at 26 locations in the city where students can apply for a pass. This includes 12 counters at Majestic, and eight each at Vijayanagara and Shantinagar traffic and transit management centres.
Counters have been set up at major TTMCs too. In addition, BMTC is issuing Smart cards to students at technical and medical colleges through Bangalore One centres.