People using the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) smart card to travel on Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses will now get a 10% discount on fares, the Delhi Cabinet has decided.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday. The government had started allowing the use of the Metro cards on buses from August 24 this year.
The Delhi Metro had offered users a 10% discount for using the smart cards since its inception, noted a statement by the government.
“The main objective behind the proposal is to encourage use of public transport buses of DTC and the cluster scheme,” the government stated, adding that an average 30 lakh passengers travel on the buses every day.
“The use of the metro card in realising the fares through ETMs [electronic ticketing machines] will save expenditure on account of printing of tickets of different denominations, stocking the tickets at a central place and thereafter distributions to various depots,” the statement read.
In addition, human resources and space at depots will also be saved. “The conductors of the buses will not be required to handle the different denominations’ block of tickets and cash. In such a scenario, the conductors may concentrate more on checking ticketless travelling,” the statement read, adding that the government would bear the losses to the DTC on account of the discount.
Minimum wages
The Cabinet also decided that the payments to contract workers of the government, its boards and corporations as well as staff of contractors engaged by the government would get the earlier, higher rate of minimum wages.
The Delhi government had increased minimum wages in the city, but a High Court order on August 4 had struck down the notification on “some technical grounds”, the statement noted.
“Payments to all those who were getting paid at minimum wage rates got reduced from August 4 as a result of this order... However, that does not bar the people-oriented present Delhi government to pay fair living wages to its contract workers employed directly or through agencies,” the statement read.
The Cabinet decided that those whose payments had reduced after August 4 would be paid the deducted amount by October 31 and going forward, the earlier rates would apply for payments.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said he had visited government schools recently and found many sanitation workers, security guards and other workers complaining of the reduction in their wages after the order.
