Himachal Pradesh government’ s decisions to ‘burden general public’ by raising cost of certain public utility services and withdrawing a few facilities given by the state government to certain sections of the society, has invited ire of opposition parties .
The state unit of CPM has strongly condemned the proposal of the state government to increase minimum bus fare from Rs. 5 to Rs. 12 .
Former Mayor of Shimla and the party leader Sanjay Chauhan said, “The proposal to raise minimum fare to Rs 12 from Rs 5, increase school bus fare by fifty percent and increase charges from Rs 50 to Rs 100 for various concessional passes etc, are anti -people as a large number of them are dependent on public transport and would pinch the common passengers most.”
The decision to increase public transport charges are reportedly being taken to generate additional sources by the cash strapped state government.
It is notable that the private bus operators, who run a large number of private buses have been demanding to increase the minimum fare in buses ; even the previous BJP government had increased the minimum fare to Rs 7 but had to withdraw the decision after public resentment.
The Leader of opposition in Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Jai Ram Thakur has also strongly condemned the decision of HP Cabinet to withdraw health benefits given under HIM CARE scheme by excluding private hospitals for the treatment .
The state is finding it difficult to pay nearly Rs 350 crore to private hospitals under the scheme for financial constraints and has formed a Cabinet committee to review the benefits being given to state government employees etc.
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First of all, all freebies be stopped to improve the financial health of the H. P. , then think of enhancing the fare in buses and even on other items.