Coimbatore: Sidelined AIADMK leader and Independent MLA, TTV Dhinakaran, on Saturday urged the government to roll back the hike in bus fares immediately.
Mr Dhinakaran, who was at Pollachi near here to participate in the marriage reception of the son of the Pollachi MP, Sugumaran, one of his supporters, told the media later that when people were already experiencing severe hardship financially in the wake of measures like GST, “the bus fares hike will hit the middle class and lower middle class people severely.”
The rebel AIADMK leader charged that few ministers from Kongu region have their own bus services plying on many routes across the state and they would get the 'real benefit' from the bus fare hike. Perhaps, this was one of the reasons for hike the state transport bus fares, he quipped.
Asserting that nobody could threaten him to quit politics, Dhinakaran on the recent entry of new film personalities into TN politics said, “it will not affect our party faction and we have more than 90 per cent of the cadre with us.”
Dhinakaran alleged that it was members of the EPS-OPS faction who had distributed '6,000 for a vote during the R.K.Nagar bypoll and denied that he had given '20 token to anyone. He also said that he was not responsible for the interview given by Trichy-Rajendran, who claimed that he (TTV) was responsible for release of a video on the treatment of former Chief Minister, J Jayalalitha through the MLA, Mr. Vetrivel, adding, it was his (Rajendra'n) perception.
Hike puts bus pass holders in state of confusion
With revised bus fares that came into effect on Saturday, there has been increasing uncertainty over the schemes provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Corporation (MTC) including “travel as you please” and monthly concession passes.
Passengers were put into hardship as the department stopped issuing the passes on Saturday, forcing them to shell out more bucks for their trips.
Using the “travel as you please” ticket priced at '50, a commuter can board any MTC service (except AC and night service) for one whole day.
“While the fare hike has already come down heavily on us, the commuters who take more than four trips a day are affected badly as the tickets are priced high and there are no daily passes,” said K. Karthik, a regular commuter.
Same is the case with the monthly passes priced at '1000. The officials of MTC said that there will be no change in the validity of monthly passes and the commuters who already have monthly passes can use them till they expire.
New passes would be issued in a couple of days after the transport department announces revised fare slab.
With government transport corporations struggling to overcome losses and finding it difficult to even pay dues to its employees, Tamil Nadu Government on Friday announced a steep hike in government and private bus fares ranging from 20 per cent to 55 per cent.
