DMK to intensify its protest against bus fare hike

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday asserted that they will intensify their protest in the coming days if their demand of immediate rollback of imposed ticket price hike in government buses in Tamil Nadu is not accepted.

"Today we DMK and our alliance parties protested successfully, demanding immediate rollback of imposed ticket price hike on government busses. If this government doesn't listen to us or adamant and if they are not going to take back then we will not stop to protest and we will again intensify our protest in coming days," said DMK working President M K Stalin to ANI.

Earlier in the day, DMK working president, along with the representative of its allies, protested in Chennai Kolathur demanding a rollback of bus fare hike. They raised slogans against the state government and demanded a rollback of bus fare hike.

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Supremo Vaiko told media, "The bus hike is an assault on the people. All the allied parties have joined together to demand that the bus fare hike is rolled back. They (state govt) know their days are numbered. So they want to see how much they can loot in those days."

The Tamil Nadu Government on January 19 hiked the fares of Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses in Chennai from Rs 3 to Rs 5, and the maximum from Rs 14 to Rs 23.

According to the state transport department's statement, in case of non-metros, tickets would range from Rs 3 to Rs 19.

Reportedly, the state government increased the fare due to the hike in the prices of fuel, besides maintenance and increase in the wages of employees of the various debt-ridden state transport corporations.

--ANI