YSR Congress party issued an ultimatum to the government of Andhra Pradesh that it should roll back the hiked fares of APSRTC before October 25 midnight, lest the party would stage  dharnas before the RTC depots in the state on October 26.

Party spokesperson Ambati Rambabu announced the decision of the party stating the fare hike was unacceptable. ” The fare hike by  RTC is common  when the petrol and diesel rate are gone up. When the crude rate is at its lowest ebb, the hike is wrong and is going to put enormous burden on the people of the state,” he said.

Rambabu said the program of dharnas on October 26 is only  phase one of the battle and the party would decide upon the next course of action after the program.

“On earlier occasion, chief minister  had increased the charges in the name of levy and now he increased the fare from 5% to 10 % which should be rolled back immediately. The coterie of private bus operators will alone be benefiting out of the hike. While the crude oil charges have fallen from $ 166 to $ 44 per barrel where is the need for an increase in the fare. But, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has imposed an additional 4 % VAT.  With this increase, the fares are bound to go up steeply and we demand immediate roll back,” he said.

He recalled how earlier YSR government ran the state road transport corporation without hiking fare even once in the six years between 2004 and 2009. He alleged that the move was only to help private operators in the state and all the private bus operators were in TDP as leaders. “All the private bus operator are proxies of  chief minister Chandrababu Naidu or  other senior TDP leaders,” he added.