KSRTC union writes to CM Siddaramaiah, claims passengers refuse to buy tickets citing Congress poll promise

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation(KSRTC) Staff and Workers’ Federation, a union of employees, has written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah highlighting the problems faced by crew members of buses arising from the Congress party's election promise of free bus travel for women.

Many women passengers are refusing to pay for their tickets, leading to altercations between them and the bus conductors, the Federation said after reports emerged from across the state about instances of women getting into arguments and abusing bus conductors for demanding fare.

The Federation urged the chief minister to implement its popular election promise, budget for it at the earliest and reimburse the cost to the transport utilities.


The Congress had, in the run up to the elections, announced five ‘guarantees’ that the party would implement if it came to power. One of those, Shakti, promised free travel for women in public transport buses across Karnataka.

On Thursday, the BJP tweeted the letter, saying the Congress’ “lies” were causing unnecessary conflict between people and government staff. “The time is not far when the people of the state will erupt against the government's irresponsibility of playing with the feelings of the public,” it said.

The Congress, which won a landslide mandate of 135 seats in the 224 member assembly, gave an in-principle approval to all five guarantees in the first Cabinet meeting on Saturday, as promised. However, the new government left the details of implementation for the next Cabinet meeting, leaving the concerned departments in limbo. Siddaramaiah had estimated the cost of implementing the guarantees at about Rs 50,000 crore every year.