PANAJI: The Transport Minister, Mr Ramkrishna Dhavalikar on Monday said that the government will shortly take a decision regarding the bus fare hike.

Mr Dhavalikar further said that the government has not received any intimation with regard to the strike call given by the bus operators on July 5 and added that the government will act accordingly only after receiving the intimation.
He also rubbished the allegations made against him by the bus owners association as baseless and accused them of turning down welfare schemes proposed by the government.
The Transport Minister said that in view of the recent hike in diesel prices, ticket hike is inevitable and that he will hold discussion on the same with the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat and other stakeholders before taking a final decision. He said that the demands made by the bus owners association will be taken into consideration.
The bus owners association had threatened to go on a day-long strike on July 5 if their demands are not met. The government had earlier rejected their demand for an increase by Rs 0.20 for every additional kilometre after the initial five kilometres.
Mr Dhavalikar said that the association is making baseless allegations against him when he has been supporting their cause on many occasions ever since he became the Transport Minister. He said that the bus owners had turned down government’s proposals to create welfare schemes for their staff which would have protected and secured the future of the drivers, conductors and cleaners.
He said that he had asked the transporters association to have registered societies of drivers, conductors and cleaners so that they could avail the benefits of various government schemes which would have benefited around 5,000 workers. He further said that the government had also moved a proposal to create health care facility, personal financial security and provide provident fund benefit for the staff.
Mr Dhavalikar said that the government had moved a proposal wherein the driver, conductor and cleaner would contribute Rs 50 each, the bus owners association would contribute Rs 100 and that the government would contribute Rs 100 per month to create a corpus fund. He said that this money would have been utilised to provide life insurance, ESI facility besides provident fund benefits.
Mr Dhavalikar said that the bus owners themselves have not supported the government to look after the security of their staff. Strongly condemning the allegations he said that the association members are making the allegations without holding any discussion for the last 18 months. The Transport Minister said whenever they had asked for his help, he did take up their issue ranging from the speed governors, the previous hike in bus fare and smart card registrations.