Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation’s (KSRTC’s) had launched a separate entity for long-distance services last year in a bid to shore up its financials. The new company K-SWIFT too may go to seed like the parent firm as malpractices are rife.
The fraudulent practices include not issuing tickets after collecting the money from passengers, allowing free travel for some passengers, permitting travel beyond the destination for which the ticket was purchased, not issuing tickets for luggage bags, and handing over to passengers tickets issued earlier to others.
Widespread misappropriation of money have been detected in the issuance of tickets for K-SWIFT buses. Ninety instances of pilfering of ticket fare came to light especially in bus services to places such as Bengaluru.
The malpractices were found by the company's investigating team, internal sources claimed. The checking inspectors conducted the scrutiny not only after a dip in the revenue but also complaints from passengers that their tickets were being taken back by the crew.
Measures to plug revenue loss
In a bid to clamp down on pilfering, the company mulls penalising the culprits. As a first step, five times the amount misappropriated could be recovered from 31 conductor-cum-drivers. The money would be recovered from the rest of the conductors in the second stage. The employees will be dismissed from service if they repeat the offence.
The K-SWIFT employees were appointed on a contract basis.
