Reforming the private bus service

Monday’s Supreme Court order making it compulsory for private bus crew to wear uniforms would be hailed by a much harried travelling public who had to put up much with the arrogance and boorish behaviour of this tribe for too long.

It is hoped along with the uniform these bus crew will be able to cultivate some decent manners and behave in a more humane manner. But care should be exercised in respect of whom this uniform is to be given.

In a current scenario where bus crew act as potty dictators and is a law unto themselves a uniform may sometimes give them a license to throw their weight around with more abandon. As it is the commuters are undergoing enough harassment at the hands of boisterous private bus operators.

On the other hand there may be bus crew who may not take kindly to the Supreme Court order and may consider it infra dig. The order is to be enforced from January 1 in the new year.But it is time that Private bus operators are brought to heel to prevent them from riding rough shod over hapless commuters.

Most of these private bus crew are semi educated youth given to uncouth characteristics which the public has come to experience in good measure. It is hoped that the Supreme Court ruling would help curb their impetuosity and bring them down a peg or two from their airy fairy ways.

More than anything the uniform would bring them into the ambit of officialdom and make them fall in line with the rules and regulations.

An enforced ‘official’ uniform for the private bus crew no doubt would give them an aura of respectability.

However the issues that ail the private bus service go much beyond donning their crew with official uniforms or introducing ticket machines. What is needed most is to inculcate a sense of discipline and acceptable conduct in these drivers and conductors who have become a law unto themselves.

Today the bulk of road accidents is caused by private passenger buses who use the highway as a race track to overtake their fellow competitors. Profit is the name of game. These death merchants carry on with impunity and are seldom brought to book.

The reason is obvious. Most of these Private buses are owned by retired or serving police officers and the mayhem on the highways goes unchecked. It is often left to angry mobs to deliver summery justice on these killers on wheels by setting the buses on fire after fatal accidents, which cannot be condoned in any way.

Most private buses do not ply after dusk and keep off unprofitable routes. The most affected are the far flung villages which are cut off after late hours making it impossible for the poor villagers to attend to emergencies such as transporting the sick.

The lack of State run transport too does not help. Even in urban areas private busses do not ply on certain routes posing hardship to the public who are unable to get about their business. Buses also wait for long periods at halts to pick up passengers often resulting in arguments between commuters and bus crew.

Most private buses also are responsible for noise pollution blaring away equally uncouth music for the duration of the journey to the great annoyance of the commuters. But the most damaging aspect of private bus operators is frequent strikes they resort to causing great hardship to the travelling public.

Today these operators have ganged themselves into a mafia in attempting to brow beat the State to surrender to their demands.

The private bus service was hailed as the panacea to an ailing state transport sector which was unable to cope with the demand.

But it was also true that the SLCTB was deliberately run to the ground by vested interests to make the entry of private bus service inevitable. The massive over staffing, corruption and indiscipline all took their toll on the SLCTB.

The private buses which came into fill the breach for a time performed a satisfactory service. But it too was soon caught up in a culture where profit at any cost became the motive.

It is hoped that the Supreme Court order would spell the beginning for a radical reform of the private bus sector making it a service that would deliver to the public.