VIJAYAWADA: APSRTC staff and the employees’ unions have raised serious concerns over the TDP-led NDA government’s move to implement the free bus travel for women scheme as part of fulfilment of its Super Six by taking a district as a unit, stating that it will create a lot of confusion among bus conductors and beneficiaries due to jurisdictional issues.
When TNIE spoke to women, conductors and RTC union leaders, they are of the view that the implementation of the scheme by taking the district as a unit will be of no use as most of the bus services are inter-district.
“For instance, if a woman beneficiary wants to travel to Guntur from Vijayawada under the scheme, she needs to pay full bus fare as the jurisdiction of NTR district ends at Kanaka Durga Varadhi. Same is the case if they want to travel to other places like Machilipatnam and Eluru. This will create a lot of confusion, and conductors have to face the ire of women if they charge ticket fare as per the norms,” said APSRTC Employees Union president P Damodar.
Travel limit may reduce RTC loss by Rs 150 crore a month
“Instead of taking the district as a unit for the scheme, the government should extend it to the entire State, restricting it to certain bus services,” the Employees Union president said.
Leaders of other employees’ unions have also expressed the same opinion on the free bus travel scheme. “We urge the government not to limit the scheme to the districts to avoid operational issues and ensure that it serves the purpose, said Sundarayya of Staff and Workers Federation.
It is learnt that APSRTC higher officials have been asked to prepare a detailed report on the difference of revenue, operational challenges, requirement of additional staff and buses if the free bus travel scheme for women is limited to only districts.
“APSRTC officials have informed the government that the loss of revenue due to the implementation of free bus travel for women will be around Rs 100 crore per month if it is limited to the districts. Otherwise, the government needs to bear a loss of Rs 250 crore revenue if the scheme covers the entire State,” revealed a senior RTC official on the condition of anonymity.