Workers of the Telugu Desam Party and Left parties staged separate demonstrations in front of the RTC bus station here on Saturday in protest against the “hefty” hike in bus fares effected by the state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.
The TDP activists led by its Ongole unit vice-president K. Srinivasa Rao raised slogans against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for imposing over ₹2,000 crore burden on the common people, who mainly depended upon the APSRTC for transport.
The hike, third in a series effected by the RTC, came close on the heels of the hike in electricity charges and property tax and imposition of a new garbage tax, said TDP city president K. Nageswara Rao. TDP women activists travelled by RTC buses for some distance and enlightened the travelling public about a series of hikes by distributing pamphlets.
Meanwhile, activists of Left parties demanded immediate withdrawal of the hike, which made travel even by the ordinary ''Palle Velugu'' bus services beyond reach. Communist Party of India city secretary Sd. Sardar claimed that the bus fare to nearby Thuravagunta, which was only ₹4 earlier, had been hiked to ₹20 now.
CPI (Marxist) district Assistant Secretary G.V. Konda Reddy said people were unable to make both ends meet with the prices of all essential commodities skyrocketing in the wake of periodic hike in the prices of petrol and diesel.
CPI (ML) New Democracy district secretary Ch. Venkateswarlu lamented that people were having a rough ride travelling by worn out RTC buses, as the Union and State governments competed with each other in imposing a heavy dose of taxes and hiking the charges for all utility services.
