Angry villagers detained a mini bus which suddenly increased the ticket fare, at Senaigoundanur near here on Sunday.
The crew of the bus plying between Senkaradu and Omalur via Senaigoundanur had started collecting extra fare from Saturday, which led to serious altercations between them and the way-side villagers.
The villagers were told that the ticket hike was inevitable since the price of diesel had gone up.
This the commuters, mainly daily labourers, opposed.
Protesting against the ticket fare increase, the villagers detained a mini bus that used to ply between Senkaradu and Omalur covering many villages including Senaigoundanur.
The fare of Rs. 4.50 between Omalur and Senaigoundanur village had been hiked to Rs. 7, which the villagers claimed was exorbitant.
“The distance was just 7 to 8 kilometres and the bus operators, exploiting the diesel price hike, have inflated the ticket price without proper calculations,” claimed a villager.
They said that they were all workers earning meagre wages and the very concept of introducing the mini bus to remote villages got defeated by such acts.
They also insisted that the district administration and transport authorities should immediately rationalize the ticket fare in mini buses so that poor people need not suffer because of such exploitative measures.
Senior revenue and police officials rushed to the spot and pacified the villagers, saying they would take necessary action.
