Lucknow, Aug 11 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Transport Minister Dayashankar Singh on Friday said there will be no reconsideration on reducing the increased fares of government buses in the state.

Samajwadi Party (SP) member Mukesh Chandra Verma raised a question during Question Hour as to why there has been an unprecedented increase in the fare of the state's government buses.

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In his reply, Singh told the House that through a notification dated November 7, 2012, the Chairman of the State Transport Authority has been asked to fix maximum fare rates for stage carriages, contract carriages and goods carriages twice every year in January and July.

In this sequence, before the latest increase in the fare of government buses, the State Transport Authority on the proposal sent by the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) regarding the determination of the maximum fare of the state carriages on the basis of increase in operating cost per kilometre.

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Through a notification dated January 1, 2020, the fare of ordinary buses of UPSRTC has been fixed at Rs 1.05 per passenger per kilometre, he said.

Singh said that after this the fare of the corporation's buses was not increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thereafter, due to the unexpected increase in diesel rates and increase in salary and allowances, it became inevitable to increase the fare to compensate for the continuous increase in operating costs.

He informed that by notification dated February 6, 2023, the maximum rate of fare for ordinary buses of UPSRTC has been increased by 25 paise per passenger per kilometre and fixed at Rs 1.30 per passenger per kilometre.

Singh further asserted that there is no possibility to reconsider reducing the increased fares of government buses as mentioned.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)