Dakshina Kannada Regional Transport Authority (RTA) on Tuesday said that it would come out with revised fares for city and service buses in three days. The RTA was compelled to take a fresh look on the fares following a direction from the Karnataka High Court on writ petitions by bus owners who challenged the June 7, 2014 RTA fare notification.
RTA Chairman and Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim said they had passed the order keeping in mind the interests of commuters as well as bus owners. They was of the view that the fares prescribed in the July 31, 2013 notification for different service categories were maximum permissible fares and that the RTA was empowered to evolve a fare structure suitable for the local needs.
Initiating the proceedings, Dakshina Kannada Regional Transport Officer and RTA Secretary Afzal Ahmed Khan told the meeting that the court has directed the Authority to reconsider the June 7 fare notification and hence the meeting. The advocate for bus owners said that the RTA has to go by the July 31 notification and the court too has mandated the same.
Meanwhile, Canara Bus Owners Association President Rajavarma Ballal, one of the petitioners before the High Court, said that the RTA was free to evolve an amicable solution. “We are in distress. Besides sustaining ourselves in this business, we are also doing public service. The Authority may fix a fare structure which should not be a burden on commuters and at the same time should not bleed the operators too,” he pleaded.
Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim, after perusing earlier fares, fares proposed by bus operators and maximum fares mentioned in the government notification, said if fares mentioned in the notification are to be enforced, there would be more than 20 per cent hike.
It would definitely affect commuters, he said. Social activist G. Hanumantha Kamath argued that there was no need for revision of the fares as the ones fixed on June 7 were just.
