The government on Monday night gave its assent to effect a 18% hike in fares of all government buses providing city and suburban transport service, but stopped short of implementing it after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy put a brake on the notification.
The notification was released to the media at around 9.30 pm and details on the changes in fares according to the distance (stage) was awaited when the chief minister’s office (CMO) told the officials to hold on.
The notification allowed KSRTC, BMTC, NEKRTC and NWKRTC to hike fares by 18% with effect from Tuesday. While KSRTC seemed to be prepared to implement.
The fare from 12 am on Tuesday, a senior official in BMTC said they would require some time to update the ticket machines.It all came to rest within 15 minutes, when the chief minister directed all four corporations not to go ahead.
“The chief minister felt it was too sudden and effecting a hike without discussion would lead to confusion. He has instructed the officials to withdraw the order,” he said.
However, the time gap between the release of the notification and the message from the CMO saw the news going viral on social media. Some called media houses to confirm the news.
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