Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the state Transport secretary to submit an affidavit stating the rules in the state for charging bus fare.
A Division Bench, Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, during the hearing of the public interest litigation filed by Advocate Pratyush Patwari, directed the state transport department to report within four weeks.
The plea was in connection with private bus and mini buses fleecing passengers since the pandemic hit the state. There is no uniformity in private bus fares. Some private bus operators are charging Rs 10 as minimum fare in different routes without the approval from the state Transport department.
Tapan Banerjee, general-secretary of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate, said: "Earlier the Fare Regulatory committee was formed by the state Transport department to make a balanced and cost effective fare chart of the private bus operators when Suvendu Adhikari was state Transport department. The report of the committee is yet to be out."
He reiterated that bus fare was hiked last in the year 2018. At present the minimum fare (zero – four kilometers) is Rs 7 for private bus and Rs 8 for minibus. "We are unable to run buses due to skyrocketing diesel price which is now Rs 89.79. The maintenance cost has increased by 300 times and the bus fare is the same," said Banerjee.