Telangana BJP leader opposes the proposed TSRTC ticket fare hike

Hyderabad: Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday opposed the proposal to increase the bus fares run by the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).

Addressing a press conference on Thursday former MLA and senior BJP leader NVVS Prabhakar said that the government is planning to hand over the assets of the corporation to the TRS leaders and BJP will keep opposing such decisions.

Prabhakar strongly condemned the decision to increase the bus fares and alleged that the corporation is incurring losses due to the bad policies of the TRS Government and added that the decision to increase the bus fare to overcome losses is not the right one.

Demanding to decrease the Value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel he reminded that the centre had waived off excise duty but the Telangana State is yet to decrease VAT.

The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has sent a proposal to the state government to increase the fare of its bus tickets in a bid to cope up with losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and aggravated due to the price hike in diesel and spare parts.

“The corporation has proposed a hike of 25 paise per kilometre for ordinary and Palle Velugu buses and 30 paise per kilometre for express buses and other services. “I request the honourable minister to consider the proposal of the TSRTC management and take it to the chief minister because it’s long overdue,” V Sajjanar, the Managing director of TSRTC said in a press conference on December 1.

The transport minister, in response, said that he will take the proposal to the chief minister and request him to take it under consideration as early as possible and see that TSRTC recovers from heavy losses.

Citing a survey conducted by the RTC via a private organisation, the minister stated that common people aren’t bothered about the ticket fare “According to the survey results, only 4.3 percent of commuters are bothered about the ticket fare hike. Majority of them are worried about the problems that TSRTC faces,” he added.