Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter LICENSE TO TAKE FOR A RIDE! SAGA OF KSTDC TAXI SERVICES AT BIAL, DRIVERS SUFFER AS AUTHORITIES TURN BLIND EYE

 

Firoz.T.Totanawala  

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

LICENSE TO TAKE FOR A RIDE! 

SAGA OF KSTDC TAXI SERVICES AT BIAL, 

DRIVERS SUFFER AS AUTHORITIES TURN BLIND EYE 

 The Managing Director of KSTDC Devaiah is still blind towards the scams in Taxi services operation at BIAL. The KSTDC is making crores commercially by exploiting the Taxi owners cum drivers. And the Corporation seems to have abdicated the responsibility of running the Taxi services to a caucus of unscrupulous people who have floated a namesake Taxi Drivers Welfare Association. While the Taxi drivers toil hard, the caucus led by Neelakantappa are allegedly making money merrily and sharing it with few top officials of KSTDC. And the Tourism secretary Latha Krishna Rao, an eccentric official does not want to hear anything in this regard...

THE SAGA 

In our series of exposures on the scams in the KSTDC managed Taxi Services operations in BIAL, we have exposed in detail how the Taxi owners cum drivers who should have obtained gainful self employment, are being systematically harassed, victimised and exploited by a gang of unscrupulous elements who have floated the KSTDC Airport Taxi Drivers Welfare Association. The Association is owned by one Neelakantappa who is functioning as its General Secretary since its inception. He changes the other bearers and EC Members as per his whims and fancies, with nobody daring to question his actions. 

 The Neelakantappa caucus includes among others, the ATO Chikkamath, Vice President Siddiah and few others. The President, or rather non-working President only for name sake is Prabhakara Reddy, a former MLA who is well past 70 years. Neelakantappa who was running his Maruthi Van in the old Air Port has become a millionaire now, thanks to the Association, corrupt babus of KSTDC and the spineless Taxi drivers who are too scared to protest against their harassment and victimisation. 

 In a way, the caucus is running a parallel establishment in KSTDC. Nobody in KSTDC questions Neelakantappa’s actions even though he is an employee of KSTDC brought in through an outsourcing agency. He is only a Supervisor in BIAL’s KSTDC parking lot and Taxi services. Neelakantappa’s caucus has the backing of Patil, a senior official in the Corporation, whose relative was given the call centre contract. 

 PECULIAR ARRANGEMENT! 

 As Neelakantappa is an employee, though temporary, and is put in charge of supervising the Taxi services in BIAL, he is barred from floating the KSTDC Taxi Drivers Welfare Association. The Taxi owners cum drivers are all unemployed youths who with great difficulty have managed finances or loans to purchase a Taxi and registering it with KSTDC Taxi service. They have to earn a minimum of 2000 rupees per day towards parking fee, loan installments, diesel and maintenance. Only if they earn 2500 per day, they get some income. For this they have to get the trips from Airport and pickups from other places to the Airport. As such, supervisor in the Taxi services cannot legally, technically and even otherwise should have been allowed to represent the Taxi drivers, as he has his own liking and disliking towards drivers. But the KSTDC top brass have allowed this unimaginable arrangement to flourish. 

 WHEELING THE CALL CENTRE! 

 Of course, the KSTDC top brass seem to have given absolute monopoly to the Neelakantappa led association to do as it likes vis-a-vis taxi services and drivers. The call centre too is literally controlled by Neelakantappa gang. The call centre personnel obey their orders to provide trips to the airport. It is a fact that 90% of the drivers do not get any pickups from the call centre as it is reserved for the favourites of Neelakantappa gang. If any other driver requests the call centre to give him a pick up trip, the stock reply from the call centre is talk to Siddaiah or Neelakantappa! The call centre does not practice the system of queue while giving pickups. What more, the Drivers are made to pay Rs.2000 per month towards call centre charges! It is because of this bad practice, many drivers are depending on private travels to get them pickups. The drivers who avail this pick up have to pay Rs.100 per pick up! Even then it is worth as they pay Rs.65 per day to the call centre which does not provide even a couple of pickups in a month! 

 While the Neelakantappa gang exploits the drivers to no end, the gang has prospered beyond anybody’s imagination. Very recently, the Neelakantappa gang arranged a new contractor for the call centre. Earlier the Corporation used to collect the parking and call centre charges through one receipt. Now, the Corporation collects only parking charges on its receipt and Association collects the call centre charges separately. What does this mean? Why has the Corporation discontinued the practice of collecting parking and call charges together?

 If the Corporation has washed off its hands from call centre, there is the real danger of BIAL cancelling the license as it has stipulated that the operator should have its own call centre. Even though the corporation has outsourced the call centre till recently, it used to function as KSTDC call centre and the corporation was collecting the call centre charges along with parking charges. Now, the corporation admits that it has given the call centre contract to one Vikas Global Solutions. And the fact is that it is the Neelakantappa owned association which is collecting call charges officially. This implies that there is a tie up of the agency with the Association. Does this also mean that the Neelakantappa owned Association has taken up the contract also? 

 MONEY, ALL THE WAY! 

 It is another matter that the Association or rather Neelakantappa gang makes the drivers to obey their orders and stomach their vulgar abuses, without a whisper of protest. The drivers have to pay the Association membership fee of Rs. 16500/-. They have to purchase the vehicles from only one particular dealer - Sirish Agencies and they are advised to get the finance from Mahindra Finance or else lose the enrollment in KSTDC. 

They have to pay Rs. 30,000 towards registration in KSTDC. They have to procure the GPRS machines at almost double the market rates and the same is the case with pulse meters. More than this, they are to pay parking charges at Rs.285 per day and that too, they have to pay the monthly parking fee in advance. Despite the monthly parking fee being paid by the drivers one month in advance, they have to pay a penalty of Rs.100 per day if there is delay! Neelakantappa gang penalises the drivers in every conceivable means. The drivers get fined if their shirt is not buttoned, or shoe is not polished et al. 

 The KSTDC has to pay BIAL Rs.85 per day for parking per vehicle. But the KSTDC is charging Rs.285 per day per vehicle. With 600 Taxis plying under KSTDC banner, the Corporation makes a big profit of 1.20 lakh per day. The Corporation which is making such a huge profit without investing a single pie has not provided any sort of facilities to the drivers. The Corporation could have provided group insurance and medical facilities to the drivers and master health checkups once in a year. There are many more such facilities the corporation could have provided at less than 10% of the profits the drivers bring to it. 

 Interestingly, the Corporation which started the Taxi services at BIAL with less than 100 Taxis had assured the drivers that the parking fee will be decreased drastically once the fleet strength crosses 200. Now that the fleet strength has reached 600, the Corporation or rather the Neelakantappa gang have instead increased the parking fee by more than a thousand per month!

 PRIVATE SERVICE! 

 The Neelakantappa gang liberally uses the vehicles of the Taxi drivers free of charge. For example, a taxi is exclusively used by ATO Chikkamath to commute daily from his home to the Airport and back. As if to compensate the driver, he is provided with good numbers of trips from the reception counter itself unlike other taxies which have to queue up in the parking lot. 

 SILENCE PLEASE! 

 Shockingly, the KSTDC top brass is keeping a deafening silence over the entire issue. The present MD Devaiah is being kept in dark about the developments. Our exposures are being talked about widely but not by the MD. Even if he had come to know of the scams, he seems to be posing as if it is not his concern. May be he has become deaf, dumb and blind to the going on. As far as the Tourism Secretary Latha Krishna Rao is concerned, she too is maintaining a deep silence over the issue. 

 ONE MAN SHOW! 

 Neelakantappa is an ‘outsourced’ employee of KSTDC. He is the General Secretary of the KSTDC Airport Taxi Drivers Welfare Association. In addition to this, he also owns many Taxis in his kith and kin’s names. And these Taxi’s are given ‘maximum’ Trips and Pickups from the KSTDC counter and call centre. These taxis are running round the clock and Neelakantappa openly says that as the General Secretary of the Association, he has every right to provide good business to his taxis. 

 If one were to take the statistics of Trips and picks of the vehicles (owned by the kith and kin of NK) bearing numbers 2608, 2499, 2488, 3443, 1331, 1144 and 2592, the cat will be out of the bag! These vehicles are doing a roaring business. In addition to this, vehicle bearing number 9759 is exclusively used by ATO Chikkmath for pick and drop to his home. In return, this vehicle also gets huge business. 

 Every vehicle, as a rule, has to be in the queue at the parking lot and the KSTDC counter in the Airport is only for reception. But few favourites of Neelakantappa are allowed to pick up the passengers directly from the counter! Gone were the days when a leader sacrifices his self for the benefit of the community. And Neelakantappa sacrifices the interests of other taxi drivers to get good business to his vehicles! 

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