By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: A day after some conductors of the SPTS buses were caught by officials of the Urban Affairs department for not issuing tickets to the passengers, the conductors have blamed the Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) for their inQability to issue the tickets.
“The conductors are being wrongly blamed. In fact, it is the MTC which is responsible for these lapses,” some of the conductors said on Wednesday.
According to the conductors, the main reason for their inability to issue the tickets is because the MTC does not issue the paper rolls to be fitted onto the Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) for issuing of the tickets.
“Actually, the MTC depot is supposed to issue the paper rolls every morning before we take out the buses. But for the past many days the MTC has not issued the paper rolls to us. Without these paper rolls it is not possible for us to issue the tickets,” the conductors said.
When asked for the reason given by the MTC for not issuing the paper rolls, the conductors said that they were told that there was no stock of paper rolls.
Agitated conductors also demonstrated for nearly an hour against the authorities for holding them responsible for not issuing tickets to passengers.
When contacted, MTC Assistant General Manager (Operations) Anthony Pariat, however, denied the allegation made by the conductors.
“It is not true that the MTC is not issuing the paper rolls to the conductors. Every morning we issue three paper rolls to each of the conductors. With each roll, the conductors can print at least 500 tickets,” Pariat said.
“It is not possible that the conductors would finish off all three paper rolls early in the morning,” he said, adding, “Even in places like Nongrah and Mawblei where there are maximum passengers in a day, the conductors issue a maximum of 1200 tickets each day.”
Meanwhile, he also pointed out that there were some ‘black sheep’ among the conductors who were spreading rumours about paper rolls running out of stock.
“We have already terminated the services of five conductors who were not performing their duties as expected,” Pariat informed.
