Thursday, January 4, 2018

MTC continues to abandon senior citizens residing in suburbs from availing free passes

TNN | Jan 4, 2018, 00:56 IST

Chennai: Chennai Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has continued to abandon senior citizens residing in the city's suburbs from availing the free bus passes.

Only those residing in addresses that had a pincode starting with '600' (for Chennai city) were provided application forms and those from locations with pincodes starting with '602' (for Thiruvallur) or '603' (for Kancheepuram) were denied to avail this facility.

This was one of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's pet project. Ever since it was launched in 2012, the scheme witnessed various shortcomings.

The facility was made available only for residents of Chennai in the first phase and an official release from the corporation said that it would be expanded to neighbouring suburbs in the following year.

But nothing has materialised till date. "Application forms were not provided to nearly 60 senior citizens in our area by officials at the Avadi bus depot," said a 60-year-old from Thiruninravur, requesting anonymity.

Though the group of senior citizens had filed several complaints with the authorities since December 2015, there was no response.

Even those residing in the metropolitan area faced difficulties in getting their free passes this year as authorities sought additional identity proofs in the last minute without prior intimation.

Unable to produce this, many had to turn home with disappointment this year. MTC authorities responded by stating that the issue would be resolved at the earliest.



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