Nine BMTC officers suspended for taking bribe to assign drunk drivers to obligation

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has suspended 9 officers following allegations that they accepted bribes from drivers reporting to obligation inebriated.

Suspension orders have been issued pending inquiry, BMTC officers confirmed. According to a senior BMTC official, the case got here to mild at BMTC Depot-35, the place a number of drivers of electrical buses allegedly reported to work intoxicated.

“An inner investigation is happening into this allegation that some officers have been taking bribes working into a number of thousand rupees from such drivers to permit them to be assigned obligation, in violation of security and operational guidelines,” an official mentioned.

As per BMTC rules, depot authorities are required to conduct obligatory alcohol checks earlier than assigning drivers to obligation. Any driver discovered intoxicated have to be instantly barred from working a bus, in response to the official.

The incident comes amid ongoing scrutiny of BMTC’s electrical bus operations.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy just lately raised critical considerations over the “poor efficiency and lack of accountability” of personal operators managing electrical buses below the gross value contract (GCC) mannequin. In a letter to the Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Reddy highlighted rising accidents, frequent breakdowns, driver strikes, and mounting passenger complaints linked to the electrical bus fleet.