‘The only thing that has not increased is salary’

On the day new DTC fares were enforced, travellers expressed anger at the rising costs of every thing, reports Jatin Anand.

Daily commuters felt shortchanged as the bus fare hike finally came into effect on Wednesday.

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Already harassed by spiraling electricity bills and milk prices, most said that the increase in bus fare was far from being timely.

“Electricity has become costlier and so has milk. The only thing that has not increased is my salary,” complained Kanchan Jantharia (23), a sales executive.

“Even before salaried like me could figure out how to deal with these issues – they slap us with another hike,” she said.

Commuters like Asha Sharma (45), a resident of Faridabad — who depend entirely on public transportation for their daily commute from the NCR — felt worse off.

“I have to change two to three buses and even take the metro in order to get to work everyday, she said.

“In all, I ended-up spending about Rs. 50 as commuting charges, just one way. On my current salary, I don’t know how long things can go on like this,” she said.

“I used to get on the bus for short distances just to save time because Rs 3 seemed reasonable. But with the minimum fare almost being doubled – I’m going to face a lot of incovenience,” he said.