UPSRTC suspends 12 officials, terminates 54 conductors, drivers

The UP State Road Transport Corporation suspended a dozen officials, including two regional managers, and terminated services of 54 conductors and drivers in connection with a racket of fake tickets being sold to passengers.

The UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) on Wednesday suspended a dozen officials, including two regional managers (RMs), and terminated services of 54 conductors and drivers in connection with a racket of fake tickets being sold to passengers.

In connection with a racket of fake tickets being sold to passengers, UPSRTC suspends officials.

The special task force (STF) that busted and probed the racket had recommended stern action against around two dozen employees, mostly conductors. The UPSRTC management, however, went ahead and blamed senior officers too for supervisory lapses.

The action comes on a departmental committee’s report as well as the STF’s recommendations.

Confirming the action, UPSRTC managing director P Guruprasad said, “We have suspended two regional officers, three assistant regional managers and six traffic superintendents for their laxity in supervision and terminated services of 54 drivers and conductors, three of them regular staff, for their proven involvement in the fake ticket racket.”

The two RMs who have been put under suspension are Atul Tripathi (Aligarh region) and PS Mishra (Agra region). ARMs are Akshya Kumar (Mathura Depot), Gopal Swaroop Sharma (Hatharas Depot), and Yogendra Pratap Singh (Buddhvihar Depot, Aligarh).

The traffic superintendents who were suspended are Ayush Bhatnagar, Hemant Mishra, Chakkar, Laxaman Singh all under the Aliagarh region and Ashok Senger and RC Yadav both under the Agra region.

Fifty-one of the 54 conductors and drivers whose services have been terminated are contractual employees.

In a joint operation with the UPSRTC’s team, the STF on August 21, arrested the fake ticket racket’s kingpins Devendra Singh and Megh Singh besides nine conductors, drivers and bouncers.

According to a report submitted by the STF to the government three weeks ago, the racketeers used to distribute fake tickets to passengers in 29 buses operating along the Aligarh-Mathura-Harharas-Sadabad route by manipulating the hand-held ticketing machines, as well as payment gateway.

While the STF suspected that the racket had been going on for more than a decade or so, the officials concerned failed to take note that a large number of buses on the route were giving very poor returns despite their running packed.

“An organised racket of such a magnitude could not have continued for so long without the patronage of the higher-ups,” an STF official said.