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.
Sindhu Sooryakumar says she received over 2,000 abusive calls on her mobile allegedly from activists and sympathisers of various pro-Hindutva groups, accusing her of calling Durga a “sex worker” during the show which was a discussion on whether celebrating Mahishashura Jayanthi could be considered an act of treason.
Comments
Suvarna news and Asianet are two faces of one coin partially owned by Rajiv Chandra Shekhar, a Rajya Sabha MP elected by BJP, Karnataka. I was wondered these two channels always in favor of Saffron fugitives, how come the TV Anchor Sindhu got exact 2000 calls from Saffron activists? There were good TV anchors in these two channels left because owners leaning towards Saffrons. Now these two channels are having Astrology, Yoga, and vastu programmes which is not supported by current rulers of Karnataka. Since then these two channels are spreading venom in the society to divide the people.
Government must take note of this and an enquiry to be conducted to find out who are behind this episode.
Come on yaar...freedom of speech and media...why pain now?
Ban RSS...
Respect women....
\Ah! Antinational. Those days, that's what the British called us\", said the frail old man to his grandson as he pointed to the TV anchor."
Right wing fringe at play.
Everything is fair in The name of NATIONALISM.
It is a sheer disgrace to threaten a lady journalist for no fault of hers. She is an employee of a private TV channel and she has done as the call of duty. It is the duty of the society to protect ladies . Everybody worships GODDESS Durga and it is not that TV reporter does not. She may be more religious than the persons who are threatening her. The image of Durga will not be hurt if some sections of the society pass comments against her. Thousands of years culture is preserved by our women only. Keralites are highly educated but not civilized enough to have finer human feelings to respect and love women. It is a blot on their society.
Malayalam TV anchor got threaten calls from Activists of #Sangh #BJP is shame on Democratic India.Who is responsible for this?
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