News Karnataka
Thursday, March 28 2024
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Bengaluru

KSRTC ignores ladies only seat reservation norm

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Bengaluru: An unwritten rule followed by all intercity bus operators for overnight journeys both private and the Karnataka Road Transport Corporation is the seat adjoining a seat booked by a lady passenger travelling alone is generally not allotted to a male passenger. However on Thursday night a young lady passenger who was traveling from Bengaluru to Mangaluru had a very distressing experience on a KSRTC bus as the bus conductor allocated the seat next to her to a male passenger.
Ms. Rao, who is working for a private firm in Bangalore had used KSRTC’s online facility to reserve a seat in a bus travelling from Bengaluru to Mangaluru. As ladies seats in KSRTC bus i.e.12 and 13 were already reserved, she booked seat number 30. As per the KSRTC reservation norms next seat to a seat booked by a lady passenger is automatically allotted to only a lady passenger. But to her surprise when she boarded the bus she found a male passenger.

KSRTC Seat Booking rules relating to booking by a female passenger stipulate that the following conditions apply to such bookings – “Dynamic lady seat allocation is applicable for all service classes excluding Karnataka Sarige and BMTC Volvo services. If Single lady option is selected during booking, adjacent seat will be allowed for lady passengers only. If this option is not selected, adjacent seat can be booked by both male and female passengers”.

To make matters worse, when she raised the issue with the crew member, instead of finding a solution he yelled on her. His argument was that it was her mistake to reserve seat number 30 as only 12 and 13 are reserved for ladies.  Adding to her woes, when she called the KSRTC centralised help line number 080-49596666 it was not available. Final solution given by a KSRTC officer was – Adjust Maadi, lodge complaint later.

According to the KSRTC website ksrtc.in General Enquiry / Call Centre Contact Number is 080-49596666 (24 hours). Passengers can contact Call Center for all Enquiry / Grievances / refund claims on KSRTC services. Grievances can be submitted over telephone also. But in this case Ms. Rao didn’t get any help from this call center.

According to the sources in KSRTC it is not the first of its kind of incident. “She must have reserved the ticket online while the next seat may have been allocated on the spot to a passenger. Generally every conductor has a target for each trip. So naturally he allocates the vacant seat to any one who approaches him. If the conductor was wise he would have spoken to other passengers and exchanged the seat for another lady passenger instead of getting into an arguement,” said a KSRTC officer.

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