The government has agreed for a partial rollback of the bus fare following opposition from political parties to the increase.
Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, who held a series of meetings with officials and representatives of Puducherry Bus Owners Association, told The Hindu that the government was willing to reconsider its decision. “There has been opposition to the revised structure. So, we have agreed to reconsider the new fare structure. We have convened a meeting of elected representatives on Saturday and in the meet we will take an appropriate decision,” he said.
The government last week revised the fares of town buses, stage carriages and night service buses. For stage carriages, the government has fixed ₹8 as minimum fare for 6 km and 75 paise will be charged for every additional km.
For town buses, the minimum rates fixed for the First Stage (3km) is not exceeding ₹5 and for subsequent stages, ₹2 will be additionally charged.
The government had drawn flak for the exponential increase in bus fare, which was done after a gap of six years.
Besides opposition parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party’s alliance partner the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam too had expressed reservations about the way the fare was increased.
A DMK delegation led by the legislative leader of the party, R. Siva, met the Chief Minister on Friday and sought a revision of the fare hike.
In its representation, the DMK said present hike had caused hardship to the people and the government should immediately reconsider its decision.
“We are not against increasing the fare but it should be around 20%,” he said.
The DMK threatened to stage a demonstration against the government if it failed to revise the hike.
Meanwhile, AIADMK MLA Vayyapuri Manikantan along with his supporters staged a demonstration near Muthialpet on Friday against the fare hike.
