Free passes for women, transgenders sought

Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike(BBPV) is an advocacy group campaigning for bus based public transport on Thursday demanding free fare for women, transgeders and students.

The state government of Karnataka should allocate Rs 1,000 crore to BMTC in the upcoming budget to fund the above measures.

During a public hearing on high bus fares, Prof.Ashish Verma (IISc) said, “The government treats BMTC as a for profit corporation. It is forced to use their own revenues to sustain the service and therefore keep the fares high and focus on areas where routes are profitable in the hope of generating more revenues. This is the fundamental reason for unaffordable fares and service gaps in BMTC. This leads to high social and economic costs to people in the form of loss of livelihoods, losing daily wages due to reaching work late, students, especially girl students, dropping out of studies due to lack of proper bus services and so on.”

He said the Government should step in and provide funds to make the fares affordable, make travel free for women and other sections of society who need the support, and improve services. “The Government should fund all this because public transport is a social good,” he said.