TENKASI: Government bus drivers and conductors said the ‘free bus travel for women’ scheme was eating into their collection incentive and it had become difficult to manage their daily expenses with the current earnings.
“Earlier we used to get collection incentive of Rs 60 to Rs 70 daily. Now it has come down to Rs 15 to Rs 20. 60% of the daily passengers in my bus are women. The collection amount has drastically decreased from Rs 8000 to Rs 2500. I used to pay for tea, vada and tiffin with my incentive until the State government launched this scheme. Now I have to pay for these things out of my pocket. My family budget has taken a hit,” said Kasthuri Mariappan, a government bus driver from Tirunelveli.
The driver and the conductor of a government bus are collectively given a Rs 1.33 (66 paisa each for driver and conductor) incentive rate for every Rs 100 of the total collection for the day. “There is an agreement that transport corporations should keep the rate of collection incentive the same even if the bus fare is increased.
However, the corporation reduced the rate of the incentive in 2018 after the government increased the bus fare. Now, the free bus travel scheme has put another dent into the incentive. The State government should bear this loss,” demanded Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporations’ Workers Federation’s General Secretary R Radhakrishnan.
He added his federation made a representation to the State government in this connection. “The government allotted Rs 1200 crore for free travel scheme. However, the need of transport corporations is roughly Rs 2000 crore each year. Corporations should utilise the fund allocation to not only bear the expenses of women travellers but also compensate workers for the loss,” he said.
When contacted by TNIE, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), Tirunelveli, S Rajeswaran, said, “As of now we are giving drivers and conductors the collection incentive based on their daily collection but we will consider their demand.” Another official of the Transport Department said the State’s policy decision in favour of the workers would resolve their problem.