CHENNAI: College students in different parts of Tamil Nadu continued their protests against the steep hike in bus fares for the fifth consecutive day. Among the areas that saw protests were Perambalur, Chennai, Thanjavur, Madurai and Erode.
The police on Wednesday detained the students who protested outside the residence of Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami. On Tuesday, they had lathi-charged several students who had blocked the roads for the protest.
The hike, which came into effect on January 19, led to statewide protests from day one with the public taking to streets, shouting slogans and garrisoning transport offices.
“Bus fare could have been increased gradually like other states instead of the sudden steep hike. Though concession passes are available for students, even the price of that would be increased, leaving train travel as the only affordable travel option,” said the agitators. They also demanded to scrap the committee formed for periodical revision of bus fares.
With government transport corporations struggling to overcome losses and finding it difficult to even pay dues to its employees, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday last anounced a steep hike in government and private bus fares ranging from 20 per cent to 55 per cent.
The move invited a lot of political flak from the opposition parties. Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran announced statewide protests and DMK working president M.K. Stalin urged the CM to withdraw the hike, saying it hit people from economically weaker sections.
Also, Actor Kamal Haasan who announced his political entry recently also hit out at the government by tweeting that if the government was with the poor, they would have made efforts to lessen the fares.
