CHENNAI: DMK working president MK Stalin on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to rollback the bus fare hike in the State.
In a letter, he said the poor and marginalised were put to great hardship due to the increase in bus fares. Women, school and college students, small traders and retail merchants were largely affected by the hike.
Citing diesel price hike and maintenance cost could not be accepted as reasons for hiking bus fares as the government itself in its 2017-2018 policy note had mentioned that diesel expenditure was only 28.7 per cent and maintenance costs was only three per cent.
So, the reasons cited for the hike could not be accepted. These were reasons dug up with great difficulty for justifying the increase. The government should immediately rollback the increase. “You might be aware of the voluntary demonstrations across the State, led by various sections of people and its consequences,” Stalin said.
He also suggested to the Chief Minister to look for other ways like running the administration efficiently and also operating government buses on more revenue generating routes, instead of burdening the poor.