'We handled the situation quickly'

BENGALURU: Hundreds of college students missed their classes on Saturday morning, having to spend hours at Kempegowda bus station in Majestic to collect their annual bus passes Technical glitches at the BMTC smartcard kiosk left students stranded in long queues. College-goers complained that the server was down for almost two hours, with no immediate backup in place and that they had to wait from 8am till 4.30pm to get the smartcards issued. Even then, some applications were rejected, they said.H Mahendra Rajput, a second-year post graduate student from Christ University, whose application was rejected after a three-hour-long wait, said: "There isn't even a single official at the enquiry desk to guide and assist the students. After waiting for three hours, my application was junked by one of the officials, who said the form required the principal's signature and not the college seal. However, at post-graduation level in my college, the college seal, which is provided by the principal himself, is the ultimate authority. The BMTC however refused to acknowledge that."Some students who applied for smartcards at other kiosks in the city too were denied passes."After missing classes and wasting so much time, I had to return empty-handed. Many of my friends who visited smartcard kiosks at other bus stations too faced a similar ordeal," added Mehendra.Kavya TV, a student of VHD Central Institute of Home Science College, said: "After waiting since 8am, we were issued smartcards only at 4.30pm. The entire day got wasted, thanks to administrative mismanagement and lack of efficient officials to guide us. We missed classes for no reason."Viswanath KR, chief traffic manager (CTR) at BMTC, said: “Issuing of smartcards takes longer as it involves several procedures, including verifications. Also, the server was down for half an hour. This led to some commotion on Saturday morning. But we were able to handle the situation within a short span.