Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has asked the Transport Department to charge one-way fare to migrant labourers being ferried from Bengaluru to north Karnataka districts.
At a video conferencing with leaders from Belagavi on Saturday, he told officials the Labour Department would reimburse the cost of transport to KSRTC and other STUs.
Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman Savadi refused to ferry migrant labourers from Bengaluru to their districts in north Karnataka free of cost. He defended the KSRTC charging three times the fare for ferrying the labourers.
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“KSRTC and other State transport undertakings are just recovering their cost. Due to social distancing, the buses are operating at half the capacity. And then, after dropping them at their places, the empty buses should return to Bengaluru. That means for every trip, we are spending three times the fare. That is why we are collecting triple fares,’’ he told journalists. However, at the CM’s video conference, he agreed to the suggestion to collect only one-way fare.