Karnataka - Udupi   

Joint meet to decide on increase in bus fares

Staff Correspondent

Association told to provide cost analysis to justify hike

UDUPI: The Deputy Commissioner, T. Sham Bhatt, said on Friday that the issue of increase in fares of private city and service buses will be decided at a joint meeting of the Regional Transport Authorities of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts shortly.

Presiding over the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) meeting of Udupi district, Mr. Bhatt said efforts will be made to hold a joint meeting of the RTAs in a week either in Mangalore or Udupi. He asked members of the Canara Bus Owners' Association to provide a copy of the cost analysis to justify the increase sought by them to the RTA and the Udupi Consumers' Forum.

When members of the Canara Bus Owners' Association said that only the RTA can fix the fares of city and service buses and organisations such as consumers' forum did not have any statutory role to play in it, Mr. Bhatt said the RTA had invited the members of the Udupi Consumers' Forum as it thought that the views of the consumers have to be taken into account before any revision is undertaken. If the consumers are not taken into account, there is a possibility of a law and order problem creeping up, he said.

The convener of the Udupi Consumers' Forum, Damodar Aithal, said the Forum is not against increase in bus fares, but it wants it to be done in a systematic manner. The 20 per cent increase sought by the Association is totally unjustified, he said. As per the calculations of the Forum, private bus operators are charging 38 per cent more than the fares of the KSRTC buses.

David A. Karkada, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, said there is a possibility of prices of diesel being reduced in the monsoon session of Parliament, hence the Association should put on hold its demand for some time. He said that he, along with the authorities, had checked the fares charged by the private buses in Udupi city and found that they are not adhering to the fares agreed in the last RTA meeting. Udupi district should not be the first one to increase the fares of private buses, he said.

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Joint meet to decide on increase in bus fares

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