Private bus driver, conductor booked for excess fare due to ongoing strike in TN

Salem: In a stunning fallout of the strike by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) workers which entered the third day on Saturday, a private bus conductor and a driver were booked in Salem for allegedly collecting excess bus fares from passengers, who would have otherwise been left stranded to fend for themselves due to the ongoing strike.

Quick to cash in on the strike situation and earn the goodwill of the members of the public by risking to run transport buses, private operators were initially on the right track in coming to the commuters' rescue.

However, with some private bus operators beginning to “exploit” the situation by collecting excess bus fares, in the backdrop of a majority of the TNSTC buses in Salem and Namakkal divisions off the roads for the last two days, few complaints began to trickle in from members of the public, sources told DC here.

Acting on those complaints, a team of officials led by Salem West Regional Transport officer, Mr. Damodharan, undertook inspections in buses from Salem to Paramathi Velur.

The officials, to their pain and shock, found that passengers were fleeced by some of the private bus operators, charging Rs 100 per ticket against Rs 72 for Tirupathur from Salem and even collecting Rs 200 a ticket for destinations originally charged only Rs 123. In this connection, officials booked a private bus driver Thirupathi and conductor Dinesh and the excess amount collected by them from the passengers were returned.