Bus drivers not fined for flouting rules?

BANGALORE: Ferrying thousands of passengers across the city everyday, Bangalore Metropolitan Transportation Corporation (BMTC) buses have, sometimes, earned a bad reputation for being least concerned about the traffic rules.The reason for this is the fact may be that the traffic police do not believe in catching BMTC buses and fining them on the spot for violation of traffic rules.The general argument of the police is that many passengers would be inconvenienced if BMTC bus drivers were to be stopped and fined on the spot.However, there is a mechanism worked out to catch the errant drivers and it involves the cooperation of both agencies.While the traffic police records the violations and passes it on to the Corporation, it is the job of the BMTC to collect fines from their drivers and deposit the same with the traffic police.This is a mechanism that ensures the public at large is not inconvenienced.However, officials in the BMTC allege that details of violations sent to them are not regular.“They do not send us the list every month, it arrives about once in four months or so.It is very irregular,” said MP Prabhudas, Chief Traffic Manager (Operations).Other sources, while confirming the same thing, said that this created has many problems with collecting fines as the amount has to be debited from the salaries of the drivers who many a time argue saying they have not broken any rules.The traffic police, however, insist that the lists are being sent regularly.“We send it to them every week.Even they have been prompt with their payments,” said Dr MA Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security).According to statistics on the traffic police website, cases booked against bus drivers form only a miniscule 2.3 per cent of all violations recorded or 5,978 cases booked.Two-wheelers led the list with 92,380 or 36 per cent.With a fleet of 6,100 vehicles, the BMTC runs 5,903 schedules and has a daily revenue of Rs 3.85 crore.