Commuters of Delhi Metro extremely unhappy with the arbitrary fare hikes

It is now obviously clear that the Delhi Metro which once used to be pro people and people friendly has now become anti people and an organisation to mint exorbitant profits by intruding into the pockets of 80 percent of the commuters hailing from lower strata and the middle class of the society. It’s amply clear now that its no more for the peoples’ convenience n welfare but for earning handsome profits out of the already disturbed and worried middle and lower middle class of Delhi. Just imagine an organisation which is already running into excessive profits ferrying to and fro about 27 lakh commuters who are private employees, government servants, petty workers, small and medium businessman, traders, students and the labour class has now after doubling the metro fares in just six months created havoc with the lives of Delhi commuters by disturbing their already squeezed budget. Just imagine the maximum fare which was Rs. 30 few months ago has been arbitrarily escalated to Rs. sixty and every slab also almost doubled. Was it for this, we vote political parties to impose huge monetary penalties on us and instead of making our lives comfortable make them cumbersome and in quandary to survive. The prices of the petroleum products have already been skyrocketted despite the international prices of the crude being cheap. The inflation is touching skies. Growth rate falling down. This is actually like paying penalties for the default not committed by us. What sounds more bothering is the fact that if the METRO is already running into profits( and if running in losses should be subsidised as its a public transport) and the Delhi government is unwilling for the metro fare increase, perhaps ready to partially bear the losses if any what warranted the Delhi Metro to harras and victimise three million commuters travelling on daily basis. Despite this if the underprivileged and economically deprived sections of the society goes for an alternative cheaper mode of transport like DTC one will be surprised and shocked to learn that there are hardly buses on DELHI roads except very few. Majority of the DELHI TRANSPORT CORPORATION BUSES are off the roads and may take one hour or more to wait for the buses of particular destination. The CMD of DELHI METRO CORPORATION Mangu Singh should give a rethinking to his arbitrary and anti poor decision and immediately withdraw the exorbitant n unjustifiable fares’ hike. This unjustifiable hike has definitely broken the backbone of majority of the commuters?

SUNIL NEGI