Thanks to Mr. Pradeep singh kharola, the then managing director BMTC, who brought in a unique procedure to recruit 640 conductors in the year 2001. `the optical mark scanner (oms),' system was introduced to bring in transparency in the recruitment process and reduce the laborious work that the officials went through while screening the applications, listing the merit chart which were generally done manually. This new system was a totally computerized one and the BMTC had designed the project in such a way that the information provided by the applicants was fed into the computer through a scanner, which subsequently created a database about the list of candidates, their marks and roster.
But how transparent and anti-corrupt is the system?
The conductor of the BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) is a result of struggled, heavily bribed, dreamed process.
How stupid, these aspirants are, to hanker for a post of conductor in Bangalore that offers a salary of just 10-12k pm serving probation period of 1 year that offers a pay of just 6k pm!
He is expected to bribe the officials in order to be made permanent and get a salary hike to make it reach a mark of 12k pm.
He, the conductor, has to bribe the depot ticket checker a total of around 3 thousand Indian rupees per month, in order not to get registered any deliberate foul play cases against him. They call it a membership. One has to first get enrolled and then become a member to be part of this internal bribe payment service. This is not the end of bribe, the sole soul of Indian Economy!
Our conductors are of course not fools. Why would they bribe to join, to be made permanent, just to roam in around the carbon flavored Bangalore city? Of course not, what they get in turn?
He receives a horde of used tickets every morning from the depot in-charge who collects them from the daily bus cleaners, needless to reveal the reason as to why these used tickets are collected.
But don’t hastily conclude your judgment of opinion, as there is still more to come.
You might have noticed in times you receive the ticket with a number equal to that of the change the conductor supposed to pay you back. This is because, when you show him the ticket to get back your money, He takes that ticket back and gives you the change. His taking back of your ticket go unnoticed. In this process of give and take, He earns your ticket fare.
This is still not the end of His earnings.
The bumper lottery is when the passenger traffic is more, this is where exactly, the depot bus allotter’s role comes in, who is generally a 12th pass (may be max a degree holder or may be not) and needless to say from the backward class of the caste system in Indian Community, who allots the route to our conductor in return of the hefty collection from each individual conductor ( 10K per month from each conductor ). By these kinda simple route allotment tactics the allotter earns nearly around 1-2 lakhs per month! Now think of times when you proudly thought, ‘its time for me to settle down, I earn 30 thousand per month’.
The route is generally of the types where laborers commute, they generally commute in a group of 8-15 at once, from one corner to another corner of the city. Considering a ticket fare of 15 , a total of 120 – 225 Rs is the fare. Our conductor offers them a discount of 30-50 Rs with ‘no ticket’ on His side of the offer. This is pure WIN-WIN strategy. MBA graduates learn this in class rooms; our conductors use this on a daily routine.
By all these He earns around 1000 – 2500 Rs per day without tax deductions (needless to say, this is extra to His salary of 12,000 Rs (1-3 Years Exp).
