Delhi women commuters are facing inconsistent fare rules on DTC buses after a reported change in the pink-card system, with some conductors collecting fares from passengers without cards while others have said the new requirement will begin on 10 October. The conflicting instructions were reported on Saturday at busy stops including Chandni Chowk and Laxmi Nagar.
A ground report by Jagran found that women travelling on different DTC buses received different answers about whether a pink card was currently mandatory for free travel. On bus route 73, some conductors reportedly charged women who did not have the card, even when passengers referred to the existing free-travel facility. The conductors told them that the card was required.
In another bus, however, a conductor reportedly told passengers that the revised system had not yet taken effect and that the pink-card requirement would apply from 10 October. Similar differences in information were reported at Laxmi Nagar, where women were said to have sought clarification from conductors before deciding whether they needed to buy tickets.
The lack of a uniform message led to arguments between some passengers and conductors. Women were left trying to establish whether free travel without a pink card remained valid, or whether the change announced from 1 October had already taken effect. Jagran’s report said the confusion was more visible at busy stops, although the impact was limited on Saturday because bus crowds were lower than on normal days.
The immediate effect has also been visible at pink-card centres, where more women have reportedly begun arriving to obtain cards after learning during bus journeys that they might otherwise be charged. The increase suggests that passengers are responding to uncertainty at the point of travel rather than to a clearly communicated, consistently enforced transition.
For commuters, the issue is not only the card itself but the absence of a single operational rule across the DTC network. Indu Gupta, a resident of Laxmi Nagar, told Jagran that she had to buy a ticket on one bus but was told on another that the requirement would begin on 10 October. Meena Kumari, a resident of Jhandewalan, said the same rule should be applied across all buses if the card is mandatory.
The report did not include a direct clarification from the Delhi Transport Corporation on the effective date, the status of women without pink cards during the transition or the procedure for passengers who were charged fares. Until those points are clearly communicated and uniformly implemented, women commuters remain exposed to route-by-route uncertainty when using DTC services.
