So I did it, in fact twice now. Entered xxxE, knowing fully well that fare to my destination was Rs 6. Took out two 2 rupee coins - no ticket given, no questions asked. Next, I tried this in a Volvo xxxC. Was a bit nervous doing it, and must tell you that I succeeded only in my third attempt at this. Entered the bus, and when conductor passed by asking for tickets, I ignored him. When getting down at my destination, told him that hey, I forgot to buy the ticket. Promptly, I was asked for an amount which was lower than the fare amount (Rs 35). Somehow, felt uncomfortable cheating the bleeding Volvos, I said no, I want a ticket, and paid the full amount.
Hope you get the point. You can do it, easily in the regular buses, and not so easily in the Volvos. Now, to the analytical part - can we really estimate the volume of "corruption" here? How much money could BMTC be losing per day to such ticket-less rides? If we can estimate the "loss" or the "leak" - say Rs xx crores per month - then we will have numbers to build or justify a business case for BMTC to invest in systems or solutions to plug this leak.
Thanks to the good work of Manjari/Rithesh/Syed/Shekhar and few more members, BMTC's stats are all available right here on Praja. See http://praja.in/gyan/info... and http://praja.in/discuss/f...
Enough datapoints there to make our guesses. Lets start then.
Key daily stats on BMTC
- Makes 73240 trips
- Performs 11.78 Lakhs Service Kilometres
- Carries more than 38.00 Lakhs Passengers
- Earns around Rs.258.54 lakhs
- Everyday, about 1.82 lakhs daily passes are issued
Let us question that passenger volume stat - 38 lakh everyday - is that an estimate on number of actual people carried, or number of tickets sold? I will assume number of tickets sold (aka passenger trips).
So tickets sold per trip would be 38 lakh / 73420 = 52.
11.78 lakh service kilometers divided by 73240 = 16 km, average length of a trip.
So 52 tickets sold per 16 km long trip.
Assumption time now.
- assume avg BMTC bus capacity to be 50 (seat + stand).
- assume that if averaged over a day/week, BMTC buses are 60% full. Reasonable I would say, 120% full during rush hour, and 40% rest of the day :)
- Assume average commuter trip length of 8 km. Avg ticket cost is 258.58 lakh / 38 lakh = Rs 6.8. That amount will not take you much farther than 8 km.
With above assumptions, you would sell 60 tickets during a 16 km long trip. [60% of 50 x 16/8 = 30 x 2 = 60]
60 vs 52 = thats a leak of 15% on actuals (8/52 * 100).
How does this fit with our 'observations'. I have spied around on a few bus journies. 4 out of 60 once. 7 out of 70 another time. Not that off from the assumption driven calculations. Plus its hard to spy on the condcutor in a crowded bus.
Oh yeah, lot of assupmtions there. But how else can you guess all this?
Now, lets guess the personal gains.
Assume all of 258.58 lakh is daily traffic revenue. 15% of 258 ~ 38 lakhs a day.
That is Rs 11 crores a month.
Refer back to BMTC's statistics on workforce. Dedicated workforce of 20473
- Drivers (7489)
- conductors (5775)
- Driver / Conductors (3610)
- Maintenance staff (2107)
- administrative staff and others (1492)
Lets assume all this money is going to #1 #2 and #3 above. 7489 + 5775 + 3610 = 16874 people.
Rs 11 crore divided by 16874 = Rs 6500 per person per month.
Rs 6500 per month per person, possible personal share from the spoils from our ticket-less rides on BMTC.
How do you like that number?
PS1: Important Disclaimer - I am not claiming any accuracy on all this stats, I am not speculating any rackets either. I have no first hand information on the full and real scale of this possible corruption inside BMTC. I am just crunching numbers from BMTC, some observations on-ground, and a few assumptions to suggest a possibility.
How come this does not happen on Mumbai buses? Never saw it 20 years of daily use.
If we agree that 70% of us are prone to being honest, then we need to think of factors that drive honest people to using invalid means to make a living - for 90% of Indians, its poverty, but more importantly its lack of social security. Hence a decent salary that helps cope with needs is always useful in stopping the genesis of such a culture. BEST staff may not be getting the best salaries in India, but the culture is one of bonding together as a family, to feel ownership of being a pasrt of Mumbai's lifeline, to akcnowledge that this company provides social security which they can't risk losing - there is medical cover and pension with excellent VRS options too.
Once someone is forced to use corrupt methods for reason of survival or in the case of 30% for want of more than their need (ie greed) and the experience is positive rather than aversive, the gain from the act is psychologically reinforcing. The extra grand may go towards buying material things while allowing the person to save more from the salary earned for that rainy day - daughters marraige, kids education, old age in 20 years when bypass surgery may be costing 20 lakhs for all we know).
The reason why people who have more than they need, like the politicians, continue to be greedy is because life experiences have conditioned their way of being (I call it social programming). It becomes habitual. People who smoke know the fag kills, how many manage to stop?
To stop corruption at the small scale level across the masses we need social security, which means coughing up more from our pockets (see thread of taxation), which means telling the industry to forget about tax sops, which means asking farmers to pay at least towards social and health insurance at rate of 10% (and also contribute same to every worker on their farms) even if we agree they should not pay general tax.
Ultimately we are animals, survival instinct prevails, why would a woman (or a man) prostitute otherwise. Social security gives us confidence that if I am homeless, I will be housed. If I am jobless, I will get subsistence money, if I am unwell, I will still get the treatment I need irrespective of my financial status - this liberates people from having to become dis-honest for sake of surviving.
The above scheme of things when applied to masses, removes petty corruption, we are then left with the giants - that is a matter of punishing the greedy - from bankers to well placed BPO staff who may be selling confidential data of customers to other scamsters.
ASJ
Not just that, Gurpreet Singh, who boarded the Volvo bus from Brookefields, refused to get off without a ticket. The result: He got into a verbal altercaation with the conductor, but had to pay double the fare.
- - - "When I asked him (conductor) why is he cheating us and isn't the salary given by BMTC enough, he lost his cool and challenged me to complain against him to the BMTC. When I tried to take a picture of him, he posed for it with a salute as if he has won a medal in corruption," he added.
- - - In response to the complaint, BMTC said necessary direction has been issued to the department concerned to conduct surprise checks and act against the erring staff.
For the full text of the report in the ToI, click here.
This blog was started in July, 09. In the over 7 years since then, the difference is that the conductors have become as bold, in going about their loot, as to openly challenge passengers to take their pictures and lodge complaints.
Like I had stated in my post of 11th July (same year, scroll above to check), the only answer is effective competition - more on the subject can be read here. Strangely, in the mean-time, some people are beginning to think that it's blasphemous to demand that, though, fortunately, the Centre appears to be doing every thing in its capacity to facilitate that, all of which can be seen in the post dated 5th March, 16, and the ones before it, in the above linked blog.
