BENGALURU: Public uproar over the steep hike in Metro fare escalated on Monday with representatives of different organisations meeting the Managing Director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Maheshwar Rao, requesting a rollback of the move. It also took a political turn with the Congress blaming the BJP for the hike.
The All India Democratic Students Organisation District Secretary Kalyan Kumar and president Apurva submitted a memorandum in person to the MD at the BMRCL office. It said, “Of the daily average of 7 lakh commuters, 30% are students. Hiking the fare is a big blow to the public and students in particular. Students Union memorandum sought a 50 percent concession in fare for students. The whole idea of Metro was to decongest traffic on the streets but such a hike will defeat the move.”
CK Ramamurthy, BJP’s Jayanagar MLA, along with Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya, J Dasarahalli MLA S Muniraju met Rao with his team and submitted a representation appealing for a reconsideration of the steep hike proposed in Metro fares.
On the other hand, Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge blamed the Central government for the hike in Metro fare, stating it was solely responsible for the decision. “The hike has been effected by BMRCL and the centre. The Fare Fixation Committee was set up by the Centre. Earlier, BJP MPs from Bengaluru had appealed to the Centre not to implement the fare hike and when it was temporarily put on hold, they took credit of it. Now that the hike has been implemented, will they take responsibility for it?”
Taking a dig at Leader of Opposition R Ashoka handing over roses to male passengers and apologising when the state transport corporation bus fares shot up, Kharge dared Ashoka to stand outside Metro stations and do the same presently.
Meanwhile, the #RevokeMetroFareHike campaign continued on X with the CM, PM and the official BMRCL handle bombarded with woes of commuters calling the hike looting of the public. Some of them stated the hike in their case was 100% and put out proof of tickets. Police sources also said that protests were staged by BJP workers calling for the hike to be revoked at important Metro stations including Jayanagar, Kengeri and Vijayanagar.
A few commuters also put up photos of Metro trains running empty on Monday. When asked about the dip in ridership on a busy day like Monday, Metro officials said they would be able to share the data only the following day (Tuesday).
Further, BMRCL MD Rao told TNIE, “We are aware of the anomalies that have been reported by some commuters. There should not be any 100% or 120% hike and we did not plan that at all. We are trying to assess what happened and are closely looking into the anomalies reported.”