Karnataka: Federation seeks simultaneous revision of bus fares for private operators too

UDUPI: Karnataka State Bus Owners Federation, Bengaluru has urged the

state government

to simultaneously revise the fares of private buses in the state along with KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and

NEKRTC

. Noting that these state government undertakings have sought an upward revision of fares by 20% in wake of the steep hike in diesel prices almost by Rs 23/litre, the

Federation

said any such revision should be made for private operators too.


S Sadananda Chatra, general secretary of the federation in a press release here on Tuesday stated that the federation office bearers recently had met

Laxman Savadi

, deputy chief minister, who also holds the transport portfolio and department officials and sought an uniform revision of bus fares for both private and government owned operators. The minister had agreed to consider this demand of private bus operators favourably, Chatra said.

Keeping this in mind, the state government must go in for revision of rates for both the operators at one go, the federation noted. K Rajavarma Ballal, president of the Federation told TOI that the minister had directed the principal secretary and the state transport authority to look into the issues that the private operators faced at the above meeting and also instructed them to undertake simultaneous fare revision for both sectors.

"We have given the transport department ample number of representations pleading our case for a fare revision given the current spiralling of fuel prices as well as to the minister during the recent meeting," Ballal said. "The federation will again submit a fresh memorandum to the principal secretary and the STA to urgently take note of the minister's direction and address the genuine case of fare revision sought by private operators," he added.