Thodupuzha: The Special Branch of the state police has launched an investigation over allegations that the entire collection for flood relief raised by a few private buses here last week have not been donated.
Bus conductors were collecting cash from passengers in buckets without issuing tickets or receipts last week. The role of a few private bus owners in the Thodupuzha area are under scanner after they were accused of keeping for themselves a part of the money raised. Some members boycotted a meeting of the Private Bus Operators Association when the issue was brought up.
The charge is that even half of the money raised from the public wasn't donated to flood relief. One of the bus owners was accused of donating collection from only four buses though fund-raising was held in all his 11 buses. The accusers claimed when the average collection on a normal day is Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 in a single bus, this bus operator had donated only a total of Rs 40,000 for flood-relief kitty.
The people who raised the issue said bus employees themselves had stated that the collection on Thursday when the organised fund-raising was held was double than that on a normal day. Not only that, those who own a single bus have donated up to Rs 8,500, they pointed out.
'Owners morally obliged'
K K Thomas, the Idukki district president of the Private Bus Owners Association, said Rs 4,44,592 was collected from the 128 bus owners in the Thodupuzha area. “We have also provided a receipt for that. There is no way to find out how much was collected in each bucket.”
“It is the moral duty of bus owners to donate the entire money collected to flood relief," he asserted.
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