“An 8-fold fare hike in omni buses is something we are seeing only under the whistle revolution government,” said DMK principal secretary K.N. Nehru.
In a statement issued by him on this, the TVK government is merely watching without stopping the multiple-fold fare looting by omni buses, taking advantage of the Ayudha Pooja consecutive holidays.
Whenever it is festival season, it is a time of great joy not for ordinary people, but for private bus owners. During the Ayudha Pooja holiday stretch, the Vijay government is struggling to stop the fare looting by omni buses from ordinary people who had planned to travel from Chennai to their hometowns.
Without any planning, they are changing and expanding the Dravidian model government’s Dawn Journey, slapping on a sticker and calling it a success journey, leaving auto drivers and private bus owners at a loss on one side, while on the other side showing the way to harvest from ordinary people during the festive season. The Vijay government, which should have foreseen all this and taken action, is instead busy enthusiastically pasting stickers. They do not even know what administration means.
We have usually heard of fare hikes of two or three times during festival seasons. But now, an 8-fold fare hike is something we are seeing only under the whistle revolution regime. Compared with government bus fares, this is 12 times higher. Tamil Nadu has never seen such blatant exploitation before. They have created a situation where middle-class families living on monthly salaries cannot even go to their hometowns for the festival. Those who somehow want to travel home must lose an entire month’s savings. If the Transport Minister were to see everyone traveling like this condemning this government at Koyambedu, Alandur, and Kilambakkam, he could make a thousand reels.
What action did the Transport Minister take against those who loot during the festive season, while throwing the government-imposed fare controls to the wind? For whom are the government’s motor vehicle laws and rules meant? Does a Transport Department even function? You advertised a 24-hour helpline to report fare extortion—can you release proof that any action was actually taken?
People have begun asking whether the TVK government is abetting those who bargain away the public’s festive joy by “taking commission.”
When complaints arose during the Vinayagar Chaturthi holiday that there were “no government buses. Fare robbery,” did you deploy Instagram influencers all at once in Clappakkam to cover it up and post reels? Do you have any idea to stage a PR stunt drama during the Ayudha Pooja holiday as well?
During consecutive holiday periods, several measures were taken under the Dravidian model government to prevent the fare robbery by omni buses.
* More than 30 special monitoring teams from the Regional Transport Department (RTO) were formed. In the cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, and Trichy, officials carried out intensive checks 24 hours a day.
* Omni buses that charged excessive fares were fined in the lakhs.
* We monitored online booking apps and found that fares were being increased many times over on festival days.
* As per court orders, omni bus owners were instructed to officially publish their maximum fare list on their website. Action was taken against those who charged beyond that.
* By operating additional government buses, we greatly reduced the extent to which middle-class people were being cheated by relying on private buses.
The TVK government has not taken any such action. The speed shown in horse-trading has not been shown to prevent the omni bus fare robbery. He stated that all the whistle sounds heard on buses are only grating to the ears of the people.