Srinagar, May 17: Despite reservation of seats in passenger buses in the City, the ladies continue to face inconvenience as the seats are mostly occupied by men.
 The Government in October last year had ordered reservation of seats for women in all the passenger buses. The order envisaged that such seats should be marked as “Reserved for Women.” Though the seats have been reserved in the passenger buses, however, most of the women commuters complain that their seats are always occupied by men. 
 Majority of women commuters while talking to Greater Kashmir minced no words to blame the conductors for failing to reserve seats for them.
  “I’ve never seen a conductor asking a man to vacate a lady’s seat. I feel the conductors should be held accountable for reserving the seats for women,” says Yusra Khan, a student of Women’s College MA Road here. 
 “I never get a seat while traveling in bus. Despite sitting on seats reserved for women, most of the men don’t bother to vacate the seat,” said Saima Jan, a University student.
 The Superintendent of Traffic Police (City) Maqsood-ul-Zamaan however passes the buck on the people.
 “It needs a morally high society more than enforcement to let the women sit on the reserved seats. “We can’t check every bus. People need to do some self-introspection. From our side we are doing enough”, the SP said.
 The SP said that 1-4 seats are reserved for women passengers in Mini buses and 1-7 in KMD buses respectively.
 However, the situation is far better for elderly passengers. “Sometimes the conductors get the seats vacated for them,” said Nazia Khan a government employee. 
 The Government had empowered the Regional Transport Officers and Traffic Police for ensuring effective implementation of reservation of seats for women.
 However, Regional Transport Officer Kashmir Muhammad Anees has different take on the issue. 
 “Government has appointed me to collect revenue. I am not being given money for awareness programs,” the RTO said.
 “When it comes to women rights we only discuss and write articles. It is a social issue and there is need of moral up gradation and awareness at high level” the RTO added.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 IST