‘I used to travel by bus to work, from now on I will have to work in order to travel by bus’ is the pick among the memes that flooded the internet following the announcement by Tamil Nadu government to hike bus fares in the state. Undeniably commuters are feeling the pinch of the fare hike as the fares have been increased by 20 to 54 percent. The hike comes after a gap of six years and is applicable to buses under state-run transport corporations and private entities.
Opposition parties have criticised for this steep rise in fares and demanded the ruling AIADMK government to rollback it. In a number of places, commuters took to the streets protesting the hike. Residents organised a road roko in Shoolagiri town in Coimbatore district and the members of the Students’ Federation of India carried out a demonstration in Tiruvarur district.
Subban, who travels to Namakkal from Erode regularly, said he earned Rs 250 a day and hereafter, he would have to spend Rs 100 on bus fare daily, which meant he has to shell out 40 percent of his earnings for travel. According to Joseph, a resident of Nettukuppam in Ennore, the hike is bound to cause severe hardship to daily wage earners, who depend on buses to travel to their workplace. In several routes, the fare had been increased by 100 percent, he said.
Image Credit: Flickr
Joseph adds that in the 56N route run from Ennore to High Court the fare before the hike was Rs 8 and it has been fixed at Rs 16 now. The MTC, which owns a fleet of 3,500 plus buses, operates only 50 percent of the buses under the ordinary service, with the remaining buses are operated under Express and Deluxe categories.
Despite the hike Tamil Nadu’s bus fares remain the lowest when compared to neighbouring states, government officials claim. Commuters fume at this comparison and question the inadequacies in the state-run buses here. Poor maintenance, leaking roofs during rain, irregular schedule, broken seats and protruding metal rods, and harassing bus crew which doesn’t bother to return the change are some of the persisting issues they point out.
Image Credit: Flickr
Demanding the rollback of the hike college students held protests across the state with many of them boycotting classes. In another development commuters thronged railway stations as they felt that travel by trains was cheaper compared to buses. There is a demand from public to operate more trains on shorter distance routes. The government feels that this hike is inevitable since it will help to revitalise the transport corporations which have incurred heavy losses. But a sudden, huge hike in the fares has earned the government the wrath of the common man which may jeopardise the ruling party’s strategies for the upcoming local body elections.
Read Also: Why Do We Celebrate Republic Day?
