Sir,

My wife and I travel by KSRTC buses around Mysuru and sometimes to Bengaluru using non-stop buses. She uses her Aadhaar card to avail herself of free bus services and has never had any problem, even while booking tickets to Bengaluru, where the Aadhaar number is verified before confirmation.

But on Friday, while returning to Vivekananda Circle from Akshay Bhandar, a lady conductor refused to allow her to use the card for free travel because it was not in Kannada and she did not know how to read English.

Surprisingly, the conductor does not know how to read basic English. It is mandated that, for using the Aadhaar card for booking, the address should be in Karnataka, which it was. She has been voting using her voter ID, which was issued based on her Aadhaar card and I myself have registered for the Gruha Jyothi Scheme based on my Aadhaar card.

When you are allowed to vote and get the benefit of the Gruha Jyothi Scheme, why is an abusive bus conductor allowed to humiliate passengers just because she does not know how to read English or does not know the rules?

I was forced to get down from the bus with my wife at the depot before the Circle, after an officer at the depot, who himself did not know the rules, entered the bus with a goon who started abusing me.

If the Aadhaar card must be in Kannada and English, make it compulsory or give clear instructions to the conductors to issue tickets after checking the addresses and not depend on the whims and fancies of the conductors.

My Aadhaar card was issued in Maharashtra and the language was Marathi, but after I shifted to Mysuru in 2022, I changed the address but did not change the language due to lack of awareness.

I have no problem changing the language on my wife’s and my Aadhaar cards, but please make the rules clear.

—R.P. Shivkumar

Mysuru

20.9.2026