New Delhi, Oct 27 (Inditop.com) The Delhi government’s move to hike fares in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses has drawn protests from daily commuters, the poor and residents’ welfare associations (RWAs), who have demanded an immediate rollback as household budgets were already stretched.
According to the proposed hike, the minimum Rs.3 ticket will now cost Rs.5, the Rs.7 ticket has been upped to Rs.10, and the Rs.10 fare to Rs.15. On the DTC’s air-conditioned buses, commuters will have to pay Rs.10 for a ride up to three kilometres, Rs.15 for a journey between three and 10 km, and Rs.25 to travel beyond 10 km.
“My whole monthly budget will be affected by this fare hike as I travel to Gurgaon daily for work. I already pay Rs.3,000 for rented accommodation and the high prices of vegetable and essential items add to our problems,” Ramnaresh, a mechanic who works in a company in Gurgaon, told Inditop.
“Delhi government does not want poor people to live in Delhi. They will increase prices of everything including buses, metro, water, electricity, food items like milk, vegetables and others so that no poor person would be able to survive here,” he added.
Another such protesting commuter is Rajesh Singh, who travels between Delhi and Noida daily.
“I have to go to Noida daily from Shahdara in a bus, packed like sardines, paying Rs.25 for one side. I will have to shell out about 20 percent of my salary on commuting. Moreover, even after paying up, I will have to suffer the poor condition of the buses.”
“At present, I spend about Rs.40 daily for commuting to my office in Okhla from my residence in Shalimar Bagh. Now I will have to shell out Rs.20 more,” said Ritesh Dewan.
Seema, who works as a domestic maid in east Delhi, said: “No one is ready to help the poor. Everyone just talks about working for poor people like us. I change buses while going to work so that I pay less and save. But now my expenditure will increase. It’s already so difficult to support the family.”
Student Nikita Gupta said: “The hike would have been justified if the DTC had enough buses. The frequency of DTC buses is very bad which forces us to travel in blueline buses where passes are not valid.”
The residents’ associations are also up in arms against the hike and demanded it be rolled back immediately.
“We have already been hit hard by inflated power bills, increasing school fees, inflation, increasing vegetables prices and now this increase in bus fares. We want an immediate rollback of the decision,” V.K. Arora, the convener of URJA Bharat, told Inditop.
URJA Bharat is an association of various RWAs and has nearly 100 such associations as its members.
“The government is also considering a hike in Delhi Metro fares. Where will the public go? We have also sent a memorandum to the Delhi government and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in this regard,” Arora told Inditop.
Atul Goyal, the convenor of URJA Delhi, which has over 850 RWAs as its members, said: “It is totally an unwarranted hike. The government thinks it can do anything after its victory. People are being made to bear the DTC’s organisational losses.”
“We are organising a meeting in this regard and will soon take a decision about our next step,” Goyal added.
However, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has justified the hike.
“DTC has been striving hard to augment its city transport fleet, for which huge capital investment is required. Further, the DTC has implemented the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, resulting in a substantial burden on its finances,” she said.
“Apart from this, the operational cost is also increasing day-by-day. Keeping all this in view, it became necessary to effect a justified hike in fare structure so that at least a portion of deficit and losses could be taken care of,” she added.
