People's Democracy

Transport Fare Hike Arbitrary

Abdul Rashid

TERMING it as “anti-people,” the CPI(M)’s Jammu and Kashmir state secretary M Y Tarigami has criticised the state government’s decision to increase the transport fares, saying that it will put more burden on the people who are already suffering a great deal because of all-round price rise.

In a statement issued from Srinagar on December 7, Tarigami said the lower and middle income groups would be the worst hit by the increase in transport fares as only people with limited means travel by public transport. The CPI(M) leader said increasing fares on the ground that the transporters are suffering losses is not a reasonable justification. “The reason for the losses should be found out and efforts made to control it by efficient management and administration. The decision to increase fares is an anti-people step,” he added.

Tarigami said that in an environment of unprecedented inflation when people belonging to the weaker sections of society are struggling to make the two ends meet, this increase in transport fares has hit them where it hurts the most. “The state government has repeatedly failed to do its bit in reducing the price rise and, instead of improving its administrative practices, it is resorting to taxing the commuter, which is unfair and unprecedented,” Tarigami said while calling for an immediate rollback of the hike.

He remarked that the hike in transport fare is a totally one-sided, arbitrary and unjustified decision. At a time when skyrocketing prices of essential commodities have pushed the people to the brink, the decision taken by the government and the transporters’ lobby is most deplorable and needs to be opposed tooth and nail.

He said that as had been with the recent decisions over hike in prices of diesel and LPG (cooking gas), the government was taking one anti-people decision after another, subjecting the common man to severe hardships.