Ex-MLA hires KSRTC buses for daughter’s wedding, invites public wrath

Mandya: Profit is a dirty word, especially in matters related to the Government. In the zeal to make quick bucks at times, it can land itself in trouble. This is exactly what happened to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Mandya Division when it hired out many of its buses to a JD (S) leader, thus incurring wrath of the public. KSRTC had lent 40 per cent of its fleet of 503 buses in its Mandya Division to JD(S) leader and former MLA L.R. Shivaramegowda yesterday for the wedding of his daughter Bhavya in Bengaluru. He hired as many as 218 buses to ferry his supporters across the district to the wedding destination at the Bengaluru Palace Grounds. According to sources, the buses started leaving Mandya from 5 am itself. However, KSRTC Mandya Divisional Controller Mahesh speaking to Star of Mysore, here this morning said that there was no shortage of buses to ferry regular passengers to Bengaluru and other parts as they had arranged for additional buses from Mysuru Division. “There was a demand for 218 buses out of which 25 were returned in the morning itself. We provided 193 buses to the      wedding,” he said. Mahesh pointed out that leasing buses on contract basis was profitable for KSRTC. He explained, “When we run the buses on routine services we get around Rs.23 to Rs.25 per kilometre. However, when we lease the buses on casual contract we charge them Rs.34 per kilometre.” However, according to a few daily commuters on moffusil routes, the shortage of buses posed a lot of problems to them as schedules were changed abruptly without any prior notice.