The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Bus fare hike imminent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 03, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Bus fare hike imminent

Special Correspondent

Existing fare stages to be maintained

Rs.6 crore collected as road cess
Validity period of caste certificates to be raised

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Considering the rise in operational costs, the government will have to hike bus fare, including concession for students, Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas has said.

Replying to questions in the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Thomas said that the fare would be revised maintaining the existing fare stages.

The operational cost of the KSRTC too had gone up by Rs.8.5 crore owing to the 15 per cent hike in the price of diesel and other costs.

The UDF government had hiked the fare thrice and it was increased from 28 paise to 48 paise per km at one go.

Stringent action would be taken against private bus owners who did not entertain students who avail themselves of the concession for students.

The government had already held discussions with the Tamil Nadu government for operating inter-State services. Discussions would be held with Karnataka soon.

It had been decided to increase the fleet strength of the KSRTC, but the government was not opposed to private bus operators who managed 87 per cent of the services in the State.

Stringent action would be taken against negligent driving. As many as 400 driving licences were cancelled for negligent driving. District road safety councils would be formed soon.

Radar surveillance systems would be pressed into service to check road accidents. The cess collected by the Road Safety Council would be used for improving road conditions to avert accidents. Already Rs.6 crore was collected as road cess.

Revenue Minister K.P.Rajendran said that the validity period of caste certificates issued from village offices would be increased. A committee was appointed to look into the request of the organisations of Scheduled Caste and Tribes to extend the validity period of various certificates.

The government had taken note of the purchase of cultivable land by private trusts in violation of the Land Reforms Act. District Collectors had been told to look into such cases, he said.

Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty said that the government was discouraging the use of flex boards and plastic festoons for official functions.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said that 2,45,867 applications were submitted by pensioners for getting one-rank, one-pension benefit. The benefit had already been given to 1,08,998 applicants.

The Accountant-General informed that the rest of the applications would be cleared by August 31. The per capita debt as on March 31, 2007, as per the 2001 census was Rs.15684.02. There were no proposals to raise the pension age of government employees, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala