Nine BMTC officials suspended for taking bribe to assign drunk drivers to duty

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has suspended 9 officials pursuing allegations that they accepted bribes from drivers reporting to work nether the power of alcohol.

Suspension orders person been issued pending inquiry, BMTC officials confirmed. According to a elder BMTC official, the lawsuit came to airy astatine BMTC Depot-35, wherever a fewer drivers of electrical buses allegedly reported to enactment intoxicated.

“An interior probe is going connected into this allegation that immoderate officials were taking bribes moving into respective 1000 rupees from specified drivers to let them to beryllium assigned duty, successful usurpation of information and operational rules,” an authoritative said.

As per BMTC regulations, depot authorities are required to behaviour mandatory intoxicant checks earlier assigning drivers to duty. Any operator recovered intoxicated indispensable beryllium instantly barred from operating a bus, according to the official.

The incidental comes amid ongoing scrutiny of BMTC’s electrical autobus operations.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy precocious raised superior concerns implicit the “poor show and deficiency of accountability” of backstage operators managing electrical buses nether the gross outgo declaration (GCC) model. In a missive to the Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Reddy highlighted rising accidents, predominant breakdowns, operator strikes, and mounting rider complaints linked to the electrical autobus fleet.