kolkata: State Transport minister Firhad Hakim on Wednesday instructed private bus operators to put up fare charts in their vehicles.
This comes a day after Calcutta High Court directed the state Transport secretary to submit an affidavit stating the rules in the state for charging bus fare.
The state Transport department had to report within four weeks.
"All the buses will have to put fare chart," said Hakim, after conducting a meeting with private bus and mini bus operators at Kasba Transport Bhawan.
"During the meeting, we urged him to form a Fare Regulatory committee to make a balanced and cost effective fare chart of the private bus operators," said Tapan Banerjee, general secretary of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate.
It is seen that the private bus operators are fleecing passengers.
In some routes, the bus operators are charging minimum fare between Rs 10
and Rs 15.
However, the minimum fare approved by the state government (zero – four kilometers) is Rs 7 for private bus and Rs 8 for minibus.
"The decision to fix the bus fare is the responsibility of the state Transport department. We do not have the authority to increase the fare without the approval of the state government," said Rahul Chatterjee, general secretary of All Bengal Bus Minibus Samannay Samity.Earlier, bus fare was increased last in the year 2018.