Bus, milk fare hikes hit people in Karnataka ahead of Diwali season

Bengaluru: An expensive Deepavali (Diwali) festive season awaits people of Karnataka as the Congress government announced a steep raise in bus fares on Wednesday, days after increasing the prices of milk and curd.

Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, however, defended the fare hike on the grounds that transport utilities were in deep financial distress, and offered to consider reducing bus fares if the Centre cut petrol and diesel prices.

"The transport corporations are running at a loss. There was a time when they did not have enough funds to buy diesel for the next few weeks and the government had to provide financial support," he said.


He added that the Shakti scheme, which provides free bus travel for women, has also increased the financial burden on transport corporations. "As a result, fares have been increased by Rs 2 or Rs 3 on some routes," he said.

Countering the opposition's call for a statewide protest against the fare hike on Thursday, Shivakumar questioned why opposition parties had not protested against increases in petrol, diesel, LPG, fertiliser, pesticide, steel, cement and medicine prices.

"Are they not concerned about the rising cost of agricultural inputs and the burden on farmers?" he asked.

Shivakumar said the government was aware of the difficulties faced by farmers amid the drought-like conditions in the state but stressed that transport corporations must remain financially viable.

He challenged the opposition to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce taxes and cess on petrol and diesel.

The Karnataka government has increased bus fares across all four state-run transport corporations - BMTC, KSRTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC - with effect from November 5. The average fare hike is around 23% for KSRTC and between 33% and 35% for BMTC.

Transport Minister Byrathi Suresh had earlier said the boards of the four transport corporations had sought fare increases of up to 90%, following mounting operational losses and rising costs.