Bypoll brakes on bus fare, power tariff hike?

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is likely to defer the hike in bus fares of TSRTC and electricity charges till the bye-election to Huzurabad Assembly constituency is over.

In a recent meeting with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, officials said that there was no other way but to increase the RTC fares because of the poor financial condition of the TSRTC. Similarly, the Energy department officials also wanted the government to increase the electricity charges because of huge losses incurred by the power utilities.

The chief minister had asked the officials to submit a report before the next cabinet meeting so that the government can take a decision on the fare hike. The TSRTC officials are hopeful that they would get a decent fare hike so that the Corporation can sustain the losses.

However, the TRS leaders have urged the party leadership to defer the decision to increase the bus and power charges at least till the bye-election is over.

The TRS party leaders have also told the party leadership that any hike in fares of TSRTC and also the power charges would hamper the party's prospects in the bypoll bound Huzurabad constituency.

The ruling party is making all-out efforts to win the Huzurabad bypoll at any cost. As part of the strategy, KCR had announced several sops, including the Dalit Bandhu scheme and several nominated posts to the party leaders from Karimnagar district.

A senior party leader said that the TRS has been targeting BJP saying that a vote for BJP would mean a vote for price hike of petrol and diesel and all other commodities. If the government announced bus and power tariff hike now, it would boomerang on them.

In fact, they even feel that it would be better if the chief minister defers holding any cabinet meeting till the bypoll is over or exclude these issues from the agenda.