The Telangana Women’s Commission has ordered an investigation into remarks made by BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao regarding free bus travel for women. The commission took suo motu notice of KTR’s comments, with Chairperson Nerealla Sharada stating that the remarks were offensive to women.
KTR had made sarcastic remarks about the free bus travel initiative, questioning if it was wrong for women to engage in activities like stitching or gossiping on the buses. In response, KTR clarified that the government does not object to such activities, including breakdancing, and emphasized that there are no objections to women making full use of the buses. He also highlighted the problem of overcrowding on buses and suggested increasing the number of buses to accommodate passengers better.
KTR remarked: “Yesterday, Sitaakka mentioned that it was a problem if women were chatting or stitching on buses. We never said it was a problem; we were not aware that this was a concern. If you had told us earlier, we could have addressed it. But if you’re asking if it’s wrong for women to engage in such activities, we don’t see it as an issue. We actually support adding more buses. People are fighting for seats, so let’s add more buses. Whether people are chatting, stitching, or even breakdancing, let them do what they want. We won’t stop them. But when KCR was in power, did we have such issues on buses? Now we are seeing situations where drivers and conductors are struggling to manage.”