Contrary to claims made by the authorities, the users of public transport in the State Capital Dehradun continue to suffer from inconvenience caused by over-loading and other blatant violations by the public transport operators. Public transport vehicles like city buses and tempos rarely keep to schedules and are generally overloaded, inconveniencing the commuters, especially women, children, senior citizens and the physically challenged.
Housewife Meera Malhotra complains that one cannot find enough space to sit in the city buses even after paying extra. Commuters are also seen hanging out of city buses due to lack of space especially on Rajpur Road, she added. Notably, many mishaps have also been reported due to overloading in the past few years.
Kavita Sharma who works as a salesgirl in the city said that she has been eve- teased more than once while travelling in a tempo. Students and workers are being over-charged daily even while they travel short distances, she alleged. Savita Anand, another local waiting for a city bus on Rajpur Road, said that it has now become common for commuters to wait for up to half an hour for the bus to come.
“Even, we pay more than the fixed fare,” she said. Many commuters complain of lewd comments being hurled on them by the bus drivers and conductors. Housewife Pankhuri Agarwal said that bus drivers often drive rash on the busy Chakrata Road. They stop wherever they wish right on the road to take or drop commuters which results in traffic jams, she added.
College student Nikhil Singhal who regularly uses the city buses blamed the mounting population and mushrooming constructions for the congestion which delays city buses on the Saharanpur Road. However, some city bus users state that in recent months, the conductors in some buses have started giving tickets to the commuters. The number of bus conductors who issue tickets is still much less than the number of buses wherein commuters are not provided tickets.