Left parties demand rollback of RTC fares
Left party leaders stage a protest against increased bus fares near Pandit Nehru Bus Station in Vijayawada on Saturday
Vijayawada: The Left parties staged a huge dharna near the Pandit Nehru Bus Station here on Saturday demanding the government immediately rollback increased RTC fares. The Left leaders alleged the state government has imposed an additional burden of Rs 500 crore on the bus passengers by raising fares. The
CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna, CPM senior leaders P Madhu, Chigurupati Babu Rao and other leaders participated in the dharna.
RTC increased bus fares from July 1 in the form of diesel cess citing increase in fuel prices. CPI state secretary Ramakrishna and CPM leader Madhu alleged that the Union government has initially increased the diesel and petrol prices and later the state government increased the taxes. They said the state government has burdened the bus passengers with Rs 2,000 crore by hiking the fares. They said that it is unfortunate that Palle Velugu tickets too were increased by 61 per cent, thus further burdening the poor.
The Left leaders pointed out that though the Centre reduced fuel prices by Rs 10 a litre following the nationwide agitation by the opposition parties, but the state government was fleecing the poor people by raising bus ticket rates. They asked how the common people can survive if the government collects huge amount of taxes on diesel, petrol, property tax, other charges like garbage tax.
The Left leaders alleged that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy cheated the people of Andhra Pradesh by increasing taxes on essential commodities and collecting other taxes. They recalled tat Jagan Mohan Reddy had assured the people that taxes would not be increased if the YSRCP was voted to power.
The leaders vowed to continue the fight against the anti-peoples policies of the state and Central governments. The Left party activists tried to halt the buses at the bus station and appealed to other political parties to join hands with them in fighting the anti-people policies of the governments. CPI Vijayawada city secretary Donepudi Sankar, CPM Vijayawada city secretary Donepudi Kasinath and others participated in the protest.