E-Paper
Karnataka govt to charge one way bus fare from migrants returning to state
On Friday, announcing the Cabinet decision to allow inter-state and inter-district movement of people, Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said this will be a one-time measure and the government would arrange buses for those in need but they should bear the expenses.
Karnataka will take only the usual one way fare from the migrant workers returning to the state who opt to travel by the state transport buses to reach their villages, even as the number of passengers in the vehicles will be half the usual numbers to maintain social distancing norms amid Covid-19 lockdown.
The decision was taken at a meeting that chief minister BS Yediyurappa held on Saturday with the district ministers, MPs, MLAs and district collectors of selected districts to review the current Covid-19 situation in the state, according to ANI.
“In the meeting today, government has decided to take only one way fare from the migrant workers coming from outside and travelling by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses to reach their respective villages,” said a statement from the chief minister’s office.
The meeting was held through video conferencing.
A large number of people gathered at Bengaluru’s Majestic bus terminal on Saturday to board state run buses to different districts in the state, a day after the Yediyurappa government allowed a one-time movement of stranded persons in the state to their native places.
A KSRTC official said that they are planning to operate around 100 buses to ferry the migrant workers to their native places.
“Today we are planning to operate around 100 buses depending upon migrant labourers coming to the bus station. Our passenger capacity is 55 but we are operating with 30 passengers only after health checkups, Central Traffic Manager, Operations, KSRTC, Bengaluru, told ANI.
On Friday, announcing the Cabinet decision to allow inter-state and inter-district movement of people, which came a day after the Centre issued guidelines for the process, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said this will be a one-time measure and the government would arrange buses for those in need but they should bear the expenses.
The opposition Congress had protested the government decision, saying the government should bear the travel cost.
