Opposition Congress against hike in bus fares, claims anomalies in revised rates

The opposition Congress on Thursday claimed the recent hike in minimum fares for travel by buses, taxis and autos in Kerala slated to come into effect from May 1, would adversely affect the ordinary citizens who rely heavily on public transport and wanted the government to reconsider the revised rates.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly V D Satheesan, who claimed that there were several anomalies in the revised rates, urged the state government to reconsider the revised rates and rectify or withdraw the anomalies in them as pointed out by him.

Speaking to reporters here, Satheesan said the opposition had in the past suggested to the government to utilise 25 per cent of the around Rs 6,000 crore additional revenue it earned out of fuel prices to provide fuel subsidy to the public transport, like state-run and private buses, autos and taxis.

This, he claimed, could have prevented a major rise in fares as has resulted now.

Satheesan said the opposition was not against increase in fares as it was necessary in the wake of rising fuel prices, increase in rates of other commodities and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transport and automotive industry.

However, had fuel subsidies been given, then a hike in fares as done presently would not have been necessary.

During the press conference, he also alleged that maintaining 2.5 kilometers as the minimum distance for the minimum fare on buses was an anomaly in the present scenario.

He said that the 2.5 kilometre minimum distance was brought in during the pandemic to help the stage carriage services due to low number of passengers and the same should have been replaced with the pre-COVID minimum distance of 5 kilometres.

Satheesan claimed that there were several other similar anomalies in the fare revision and therefore, the state government needs to reconsider its decision.

He further claimed that Kerala was the only state in the country where the bus fares were increased in such a manner and compared it to the fares in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu where, he said, the ticket prices were much less.

According to a state cabinet decision on Wednesday, the minimum fares for ordinary bus services, including city, town, city-circular and city-shuttle, would be Rs 10 from the earlier Rs 8.

Besides that, minimum bus fares of city fast services would be hiked from Rs 10 to Rs 12, for fast passenger and limited stop fast passenger, the minimum rates would be increased from Rs 14 to Rs 15 and for superfast from Rs 20 to Rs 22, the cabinet had decided.

Express, super express, super air express, super deluxe / semi sleeper bus services, luxury / high-tech and air conditioned (AC) bus services, single axle services, multi-axle services and existing low-floor AC bus services will not see any increase in fares, it had said.