SPTS irked over damage to buses
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Shillong Public Transport Service (SPTS), a special cell of the Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) which is operating the JNNURM buses, has taken strong exception to acts of vandalism by people who cut the seats and scratch on the body of the buses.
“We have found that there are some passengers who are trying to cut the seats with sharp instruments. Not only this, there are people who even tried to scratch the colour of the buses,” MTC Assistant General Manager (Operations) Anthony Pariat told reporters on Saturday.
“The Government has come up with these buses for the benefit of the general public but it is it is a pity that people display such acts of destruction,” Pariat added.
On the complaints of non-issue of tickets by the conductors, Pariat defended them by saying that many of these conductors were new to the job and their performance would improve with the passage of time.
The MTC official also reasoned that the conductors face difficulty in issuing tickets for commuters who use these buses for short distances.
He, however, called upon the general public to pay the exact fare so that the conductors are not burdened over issuing the change.
“The conductors will face difficulties in returning the change if the commuters want to pay the fare with Rs 500 or Rs 1000 notes. There are also instances when commuters pay their fare by giving notes which are torn and badly soiled,” the official added.
Meanwhile, he also informed that the main problem behind issue of tickets was the non-availability of thermal rolls for inserting in these machines.
“These thermal rolls have to be acquired from Pune, Maharashtra. They are expected to arrive very soon. Once we receive the rolls all ticketing issues would be sorted out,” Pariat said, adding “At the moment we are using other locally available papers from Shillong for printing the tickets.”
