Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday hit out at the Congress government of Karnataka over the row in carpooling in Bengaluru. Some reports in the media recently stated that the government has banned carpooling in the tech city which was denied by Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy. The Minister said that carpooling aggregator apps did not seek any permission from the government so there was no question of putting a ban.
Responding to the same, Surya alleged that the transport ministry has confused carpooling with ride splitting. He said that a city like Bengaluru which suffers from long hours of traffic congestion needs policies focused on promoting public transport.
"The Transport Ministry seems to have completely confused itself with these two concepts (carpooling and ride splitting) and is trying to ban the idea of carpooling," he said.
"In a city like Bengaluru which is struggling to manage its congestion, especially in peak hours, the policy objective must be to encourage people to use less vehicles and more public transport. The policy objective must be to move people and not vehicles," he added.
"The state government of Karnataka is contemplating on one hand to levy a congestion tax in Bengaluru and on the other hand is contemplating banning carpooling. This is ironical. This is 'tughlaq sarkar' in its definition. My demand with the chief minister and transport minister is to first understand the difference between what carpooling and what ride splitting is,” Surya said while speaking to reporters in Bengaluru.
On Monday, Reddy said in a post on X: "Carpooling is not banned, it is false news. First, let them take permission. When they have not taken the permission where is the question of banning? Everyone should follow the rules and regulations.”
“It is illegal to use non-commercial private vehicles with white number plates for carpooling purposes. Commercial Vehicles with yellow number plates, can be used for carpooling by following appropriate guidelines,” he added.