The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Move to hike bus fares opposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 12, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Move to hike bus fares opposed

Staff Reporter

`Any increase in bus fares will merely be a case of rubbing salt on the wounds of the people who are already reeling under rising prices of all commodities'

BANGALORE: The State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said that the State Government's move to increase bus fares close on the heels of the hike in prices of petrol and diesel is unfair and should be abandoned.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, CPI (M) State Secretary G.N. Nagaraj said that when the Centre increased the prices of petroleum products on June 20, the State Government increased bus fares. The steep increase in bus fares will merely be a case of rubbing salt on the wounds of the people who are already reeling under rising prices of all commodities, Mr. Nagaraj added. The prices of real estate, house rent and other rising costs have meant that the poor and the middleclass cannot hope to live and work in the city and are being forced to commute long distances. The move to increase bus fares will only burden them further, he said.

Urged

He said Transport Minister and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President M. Mallikarjun Kharge appears to have forgotten to put the people's interests first and urged the Government to drop the move.

The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) recently organised a protest here against the increase in fuel prices. An effigy of Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was burnt.

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