Nagpur: State transport minister and Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote on Wednesday indicated that the fares of ST buses may have to be hiked soon to meet the ever escalating fuel prices.
Raote was on a day-long visit to the city to review his party’s units in all eleven district of Vidarbha.
The transport minister said Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) was incurring an additional financial burden of around Rs 460 crore because of the sky-rocketing prices of diesel. He said fuel cost was going up daily and hence, a steep hike in bus fares could not be ruled out. The wage revision of one lakh MSRTC employees was also due and he was awaiting firm proposal from the government on providing finances for it.
“The managing director of MSRTC is on a foreign tour. As soon as he returns, I expect to receive the financial statement for the proposed staff wage hike,” he said. The staff had resorted to strike a couple of months ago and have again served a notice to strike work.
Raote spent the day meeting with district units’ office-bearers and discussing poll preparedness. Party chief Uddhav Thackeray was here on May 11 to take stock of the situation and now Raote followed up making it clear that the Sena was going ahead seriously with plans to contest all next elections on its own.
Raote slammed BJP for ‘importing’ from other parties and said it showed BJP did not have strength of its own.