The hike in fuel prices, particularly petrol price that touched ₹ 80.90 a litre on Wednesday, has come in as a shock for common people and the daily wage earners who were forced to spend a substantial portion of their earnings towards fuel cost.
After three months of lockdown, industries and commercial establishments resumed their business while construction activities also resumed with minimum workers. Daily wage earners, who depend mostly on public transportation for commuting, face challenges in reaching their work place as less than 50% buses are operated. “Since adequate buses were not available to reach the workplace, I have to ply in my two-wheeler spending at least ₹ 60 a day for fuel”, said T. Vadivel, involved in construction of Aval Poondurai, who spends ₹ 400 a week for fuel.
“Our wages have been reduced now and spending too much on fuel cost is affecting us”, he said.
On May 1, the price of petrol was ₹ 72.84 a litre while it was ₹ 76.02 a litre on June 1. “We have to spend an additional ₹ 10 per litre now when compared to the price before lockdown”, said S. Muthu, an electrician from Modakurichi. With the frequency of buses and connectivity in each route is less, most of the workers reach their workplace, both in villages and in the city, by two-wheelers. “Earlier, our bus fare was ₹ 20 to ₹ 30 a day, but now for petrol we spend ₹ 60 to ₹ 80 a day”, said a conservancy worker P. Latha.
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