Benagluru, Feb 27: The sudden hike in bus fares by the state-run transport corporation has triggered a public outrage and protests by the opposition Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka.
Terming the hike as anti-people and inflationary, the Congress urged the ruling BJP to withdraw it forthwith and spare the commuters from the additional burden.
"KSRTC and its affiliates should not further burden the people when the cost of living has gone up and its bus service is used by the majority in the absence of trains in many regions of the state," said Ravi Gowda of the Congress.
In a surprise announcement on Tuesday night, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and its two affiliates -- North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKSRTC )and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKSRTC) -- increased bus fares by 12% with effect from Wednesday, drawing the ire of commuters and opposition parties alike.
Condemning the fare hike, JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy urged the KSRTC to roll back the revised fares and give relief to the common man reeling under price rise due to CGST, SGST and food inflation.
"The BJP government has deliberately increased the bus fare ahead of the state budget for 2020-21 fiscal on March 2, catching people unawares. Though student passes have been spared from the hike, regular passengers are forced to pay Rs 5-32 more instead of getting better efficiency, management and productivity," Kumaraswamy said in a statement in Bengaluru.
It's an additional burden on us, said Bengaluru resident K. Venkatesh, while adding,
"The 12 percent hike in bus fares by the KSRTC and its north-east and north-west affiliates from Wednesday will hit passengers hard and make commuting costly.”
"The fare hike will negate the state government's efforts to encourage public transport service and force passengers to travel on the train, which is cheaper, faster and safer," asserted Venugopal Gupta, a cloth merchant in the city.
Justifying the hike, KSRTC Managing Director Shivayogi Kalasad told media that the hike was inevitable due to the steady increase in diesel price, dearness allowance in staff salary and overall cost of operations.
"Since the last fare revision came in May 2014, the operational cost has gone up substantially due to Rs 11.27 per litre hike in diesel price, increase in DA to employees and repairing, maintenance and fleet management costs," Kalasad said.
The financial burden due to fuel price hike is Rs 261 crore, DA Rs 341 crore and operational cost Rs 601 crore per annum for KSRTC alone, he said.
"For the benefit of rural passengers, fares have been reduced to Rs 5 from Rs 7 for the first 3 km. There is no increase in fares for the first 12 km and up to first 6 km in express service," Kalasad added.
Comments
Rakesh
why sit in DOHA come to INDIA and start \Swatch Bharath\" before that clean your \"dirty mind\""
nationals=those are protest peacefully .
anti nationals=beating the people, taking law in hand, not respecting supreme court order,abusing people.
now decide who is antinational.
Dear Mohammad and Syed Jubail, Every one has a right to say his opinion or comment on any issues. so please refrain yourself from wrong comments.
Thanks to PFI to register their unhappy on Ananth statement against Islam and Muslims.
#4 RAKESH DOHA, BE CAREFUL YOU ARE NOTED BY PFI ACTIVISTS FROM DOHA.....DONT COMMENT SUCH A HARSH WORD TO MUSLIM COMMUNITY....
Rakesh Doha, Kindly refrain from commenting against muslims as you are in a muslim country and should be thankful that your daily bread is coming from muslims. First clean your thinking SWACH BRAIN
Sagar & Rakesh please give one anti national activity of PFI...
But for RSS so much available....Sindhagi flag, major bomb blast - Ajmer Dargha, Mecca Majsid, samjota Express, demolition of Babri Masjid and lot more...
We all knew after Modi government u all people are frustrated....u all require a change now better all chaddi gang migrate to Nepal because no one will disturb u there...
azadi from PFI, well known anti national group, let me give one example if your true believer of god your should support all the religion. bhagwan commented against hindu god !!! if u people are not anti national u have to protest against that also. clearly pfi related all people and groups are anti national. if u want a wonderful national please avoid protest against the one who commented on u, your god, protest against effects on each and every one,
KICK OUT RSS FROM THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY....THEY DONT DESERVE TO BE A PART OF THIS LOVELY COUNTRY.......I LOVE MY INDIA
I HATE RSS IN INDIA
WE WANT AZAADI FROM RSS, VHP,BD SRS, ANTI NATIONALISTS GROUP....
SAVE INDIA FROM RSS
PFI is only hope for the future
People criticise only those who work for the community....as you see that RSS was attacking MULIMS verbally and physically ....but time has changed .....it now attacks verbally PFI (as it has no guts to face PFI physically) because PFI fight to the limit against any elements which is against our constitution and against any Fascist so called Powers and against Anti nationals like Muthaliks who hoisted Pakistan flags
by the way we forgot that Govts taken the Sindhagi Flag issue than JNU fake slogan issues...this is real Fascism
come on people ...dont here gossips against Popular Front of India ...its all Gossips either from So called Secular Muslim leaders who for their self interest go against it ...or RSS who are seeing PFI as thret to their ultimate Goal of Brahminism INDIA
u guys cannot do anything , what happened to baby nirbhaya ( fake case) , all people know about your community mentality .instead of do some good job like swach bharath . we dont see no proactive lead taken by muslim community on this part .
guilty must be punished, good luck pfi u will get justice.
anti national protest, anti national party of india.
PFI doing good protest, protest till ananth gets maximum punishment.
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