BODY CAMERAS ON AURANGABAD CONDUCTORS

Aurangabad, Dec. 6: Bus conductors and ticket inspectors in Maharashtra's Aurangabad city will soon be equipped with body cameras to keep a tab on the behaviour of passengers and other activities during transportation, an official has said.

A few days back, some women conductors of the civic- run buses complained of misbehaviour with them during their duty hours. “Acting on it, the Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation has decided to install body cameras in the front pockets of shirts of the conductors and inspectors of its buses to record the activities in the vehicles during their duty,” the ASCDCL official said in a statement on Saturday.

The cameras will help in the real-time examination of tickets and to keep an eye on other activities in the buses, he said. The ASCDCL administration has also deployed former defence servicemen as line inspectors, who will check tickets of passengers and their behaviour, the official said. They will also ensure security of passengers and give the feedback of commuters to authorities, he added.

The ASCDCL has a fleet of 100 buses, out of which 29 are currently being run on 12 routes in the city, ferrying around 5,000 passengers in a day, another official said. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation's employees have been hired as drivers and conductors of these buses, he said. During the lockdown period, these civic-run buses were used to ferry Covid-19 patients. Last month, the ASCDCL resumed its bus services for normal passengers, the official added.

The ASCDCL has been formed by the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to implement smart city projects. Aurangabad Municipal Commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey heads the ASCDCL.