Kochi: Congress in Karnataka would have won women’s support through its free travel scheme for the women in government buses, but it has lost the support of those who have become victims of the scheme despite paying full fare.
The Shakti scheme has encouraged a large number of women to make unproductive trips at the cost of the convenience of genuine wtravellers like office goers, students, the sick among others.
The heavy turnout of women has deprived ticket-buying senior citizens of their right to avail of the benefit to sit on seats reserved for them.
Also the government has failed to ensure that buses are operated at scheduled time torturing people to wait indefinitely for their buses.
Such instances are mainly seen in Mysuru.
There seems to be no monitoring of the services conducted by the personnel who terminate service at their whims and fancies.
One such example is that of the Krishnarajasagar-bound buses which are mostly terminated about eight kms away from the destination pushing the tourists at the mercy of the auto rickshaws and taxi operators who allegedly fleece the gullible visitors.
Shockingly, the KSRTC Managing Director Anbu Kumar has claimed that its revenue has increased after the introduction of the scheme as in most cases women forced their men to travel with them.
He said the revenue for 2023-24 jumped Rs 3,930 crore. “The total revenue of KSRTC was Rs 2,738 crore in 2016, Rs 2,975 crore in 2017, Rs 3,131 crore in 2018, Rs 3,182 crore in 2019, Rs 1,569 crore in 2020 (Covid-19), Rs 2,037 crore in 2021 and Rs 3,349 crore in 2022. From June 2023 to May 2024, the total traffic revenue was Rs 4,809 crore and he attributed it to the increase in non-Shakti passengers.
While Shakti revenue is 42.5 percent (Rs 2,044 crore), non-Shakti revenue is 57.5 per cent (Rs 2,764 crore).
He patted four transport corporations -KSRTC, Kalyana-Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC), North West Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) for making the Shakti scheme a success.
The KSRTC Staff and Workers Federation said there was a shortage of 14,000 employees and shortage of buses.
Shakti scheme hits passengers
