Citizens demand bus bhagya with Chief Minister

The Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike and Citizens for Bengaluru met the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday, demanding Bus Bhagya in the upcoming State Budget. He listened to our demands on ‘Halve the Fares and Double the Fleet’ and has agreed to consider our demands presented in the memorandum along with ‘Janara Budget Goshti’ conducted yesterday.

With the budget coming up on Wednesday, it is important that the State Government considers our demands so that by encouraging public transport traffic congestion can be eased and air pollution reduced. We believe the Congress government can bring significant changes to the city by encouraging ordinary citizens to use buses to commute. Buses are not just for commuting from one place to another, but helps individuals to access education, livelihood and healthcare and ensures dignity and safety of all sections of the society.

Since 2011, the diesel prices have increased between 31-34 per cent, whereas bus fares have increased between 25-77 per cent. The State Government has stated that they will buy 3,000 more buses, but this is insufficient for a city like Bangalore, where of the 3,000, 1,000 buses will be decommissioned and the rest do not add up to a significant number of buses, given the demand for bus services. Only by doubling the fleet will the State Government be able to achieve a difference.

There have been several MLAs who have supported the campaign. They are S.R. Vishwanath, S. Muniraju, Dinesh Gundu Rao, K. Gopalaiah, Dr Aswath Narayana, along with Congress MP Prof. Rajeev Gowda who have expressed support to ‘Halving the Fares and Doubling the Fleet’.  Numerous associations, organizations, RWAs also support the Bus Bhagya demand and have written to the CM asking for the same. 

MLAs who wrote to CM formally:
 
Ashwath Narayana, Malleswaram
Gopalaiah, Mahalakshmi Layout
Muniraju, Dasarahalli
Akanda Sreenivasa murthy , Pulikeshinagar
Priyakrishna, Govindrajnagar
BN Vijay Kumar
 
MLAs that supported our demands:
Dinesh Gundu Rao
S R Vishwanath
B A Basavaraja
S R Somshekar
R V Devraj
Ravi Subramanya
 
List of organizations: 
 
RWAs
 
Gururaja Layout RWA, Gururaj layout, Doddanekundi.
Malleswaram Swabhimana Initiative 
Innovative Petals Owners welfare Association, Doddanekundi.
REWABE RWA, Milton Street.
Chakravarthy & Chandavarkar Layout House Owner Welfare Assn, Palace Road.
Abshot Layout Resident Association(ALRA), Abshot Layout.
AICOBO Nagar RWA, BTM 1st Stage.
Aatmeeya Geleyara Balaga RWA, Mahalakshmipuram
“iChangeIndiranagar – Federation of RWA’s
 -(Social Aminition Assocaition
Defence Colony RWA
The HAL II stage Civic Amenities and Cultural Assocaition
Indiranagar I stage League
Indiranagar II stage League
B M Kaval RWA
HAL II stage RWA
HAL III stage Tax payers and RWA
Samhita Castle Apartment Owners welfare Association, C V Ramannagar
Citizen Welfare Association of Richmond Town and Langford Town.
 
SWA
Action for Social Justice, S R Nagar
Kormangala Slum Development Committee , Kormangala 1st Stage.
Friends Welfare Assn, L R Nagar
Slum Janara Sangatane , L R Nagar
 
Colleges
Concenrs Community College, Dodda Gubbi post.
Mount carmel college, Vasanthnagar
RBANMS college 
Azim Premji University

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About Srinivas Alavilli 24 Articles
Srinivas Alavilli is a citizen activist based in Bengaluru, working on a variety of issues. He is the co-founder of Citizens for Bengaluru, and is currently Fellow at WRI India.