Public Transport...Oh Bangalore !!

Here is a situation for the public transport using section of the people living in Bangalore. Just the way we take pride to be a part of this city, the vigil public assistance system like the police take great pride in causing harassment to the dwellers.

Last night we were waiting at the Brigade Road to see off a friend post dinner, where we eventually ran into bargaining with the auto drivers as a part of the regular chores.

For a distance of 5kms, they demanded nothing less than a Rs.250/- and the reasons were as good as not getting passenger to return to the same place.He was ready to buy the justification and pay up to double the price in spite of all the lame laws in this city that says one and a half meter only after 10pm.The distance he wanted to ply in the auto was about 5-6 kms and double the amount of the meter would have come to no more than Rs.80/-. However, the Nawaabs of midnight Bangalore were not ready for anything less than Rs.200/-.Their hunger for money grows wild with the non Local language speaking crowd, hence this did not surprise us.

Now the best Part-Then comes the Police patrol,the brightest face of the city. His eyes only hungry for the small changes from the tea stall and the mid night snacks sellers. The Brigade Road Patrol is the most non-cooperative police patrol service in this city.The Bald police man talks nothing other than the local language and flaunts his ability to harass people which finally almost ends in an ill communication.

When asked to assist with hiring an auto, he was upfront enough to tell us that we should even pay Rs.500/- if asked for and go where we have to as soon as possible. His behavior extremely rude and his motives all set to get the slightest clue to create uncanny situation.
Is this the Protection and the assistance that the people living in this city acquire from the police? is this the face of the highest tax collecting state in this country? Is this a part of the decorum they are supposed to follow?

We have created communities in Facebook,we have celebrated the hype of not using the public transport through social networking sites, we have circulated phone numbers and created grievance Cells to fight this ultimate and one of the major issues in this city.
All have failed drastically....and the city remains as back boneless as ever. The Meter-Jam Initiative was a flop.The one day facebook attempt to acquire publicity does not help.