BENGALURU: The transport corporation staff have complained that the Rs 100 allotted per bus by the department to perform the puja as part of Ayudha Puja celebrations is meagre. The staff from BMTC, KSRTC, NEKRTC and NWKRTC said they cannot perform the puja, which is the annual ritual, as the amount allocated for 23,000 buses across the state is too little.
On their part, KSRTC and BMTC senior officials said, “How can we satisfy them? For that, we need Rs 2,000 per bus as many of them expect prasad like Mysore Pak, boondi for laddoo. We are giving them about Rs 100 per bus and asking them to perform pujas depot wise and that should be sufficient.’’
The senior officials said the department has, for the first time in 65 years of its existence, given salaries many days in advance because of the festival season. “We have also given them encashments which had stopped during the Covid pandemic,” they added.
Recalling the tradition, Chicke Gowda, a retired KSRTC Divisional Controller, who served in the 80s and 90s, said, “During our time, we used to send a special truck to purchase all the puja material. We used to buy about four lengths of a flower garland, a packet of incense sticks, an ash gourd, vermillion, vibhuti, one coconut and bananas for each vehicle.”
He said, “Obviously, we could not give what the staff demanded. Then, they wanted jasmine flowers, but they were expensive. The staff used to buy more flowers by putting some money from their own pockets.’’
Those days, they would ask for prasad items and sweets, but it would work out to be too expensive, while some would buy it on their own, he added.
KSRTC Managing Director Anbu Kumar was not available for comment.