Hyderabad: Telangana Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was on Thursday prevented by the police from protesting against the Telangana State Road Trasnsport Corporation (TSRTC) fare hike.
Kumar planned to speak with TSRTC staff, and commuters who are holding a protest in Secunderabad. He was slated to reach the Jubilee Bus Stand along with BJP workers at 9:30 this morning. Security personnel have been deployed in large numbers at the leaders residence, preventing him from participating in the protest.
Vexed at the Telangana government’s methods of dealing with dissent, the Karimnagar MP said that Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s end was near. However, the BJP unit is keen on holding the protest at the bus stand.
TSRTC fare hike background
The bus fares of state-owned Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) will again go up from Saturday, as it on Friday announced that it will levy diesel cess of Rs 2 to Rs 5.
TSRTC Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan said with the increase in diesel prices, the TSRTC had no option but to level cess.
The diesel cess has been fixed at Rs 2 per passenger for Pallevelugu and City ordinary services and Rs 5 per passenger for Express, Deluxe, Super Luxury, City Metro Express and Deluxe, and all AC services.
The minimum fare of Rs 10 in Pallevelugu and City Ordinary services will continue to be the same so as not to burden the common man and short distance passengers, the TSRTC Chairman said.
Goverdhan and TSRTC Managing Director VC Sajjanar requested people to co-operate and extend patronage.
TSRTC buses consume around 6 lakhs litres of HSD Oil every day for its operations to serve lakhs of passengers. The price of HSD oil has increased abnormally in recent times, increasing by Rs 35 compared with the prices in December 2021, they said.
HSD Oil, which was Rs 83 per litre in December 2021, has now gone up to Rs 118 per litre (for bulk users). “This has severely impacted expenditure of the Corporation. However, the Corporation has been trying to manage the increased prices of HSD Oil all these days. But the increase in the last few days has made it inevitable to levy cess on the passengers’ fares. This will enable the Corporation to recover a portion of the increased expenditure and sustain its operations in the best interest of the travelling passengers,” they said.
Only last month, fare in all bus services other than ordinary had gone up after the TSRTC imposed passenger cess.
A cess of Rs 5 was levied on passengers travelling on Express, Deluxe, Super Luxury, Rajadhani, Garuda, and Garuda Plus buses.
(with inputs from IANS)
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