KSRTC told to pay Rs 1,000 for failure to pick up passenger

Bengaluru: A consumer court in Bengaluru has ordered the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to pay Rs 1,000 as compensation to a passenger for failing to pick him up from the designated bus stop.

Sixty seven-year-old S Sangameshwaran, a resident of Banashankari in the city, had booked a return ticket to Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu from Bengaluru on a KSRTC Airavat Club Class bus on October 12, 2019.

While returning from Tiruvannamalai on October 13, 2019, though the passenger reached the designated bus stop on time he was not picked up and instead received an SMS containing the details of the trip and contact number of the conductor.

When the passenger called up, the bus conductor maintained that he had already left Tiruvannamalai and blamed him for turning up late. The elderly man had to take a bus to Hosur in Tamil Nadu and another bus to reach Bengaluru.

Sangameshwaran filed a complaint against the KSRTC Managing Director and General Manager with the Bengaluru Second Urban Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

The KSRTC maintained that the complainant is not liable to receive compensation as per the law. It argued that the case should be dismissed as it happened in Tiruvannamalai which is beyond its jurisdiction. It maintained that the complainant was sent an SMS about shifting of the bus stop.

It also said as many as 23 passengers boarded the bus from the changed location. The consumer court didn't agree with the arguments of KSRTC as it failed to produce any evidence. The consumer court ordered the KSRTC to pay a compensation of Rs 1,000 for the inconvenience caused to the complainant, who is a senior citizen and asked it to refund the Rs 497 as ticket fare and an additional amount of Rs 200, which he paid as fare in other buses to reach Bengaluru.