Tejasvi Surya raises concern over Namma Metro fare hike, alleges ₹150 crore calculation error
Bengaluru: Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya has questioned the recent Namma Metro fare hike, alleging that commuters may have been overcharged by nearly ₹150 crore due to a calculation error by the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).
Speaking at a review meeting on Tuesday, Surya said BMRCL used incorrect base year data while submitting expenditure figures to the Fare Fixation Committee. According to a report by Hindustan Times, he claimed that the corporation relied on financial data from 2016–17 instead of 2017–18, leading to inflated operational and maintenance cost estimates.
“This incorrect computation has resulted in an unjustified increase in fares,” Surya said, urging officials to rectify the error and issue a clarification at the earliest.
The MP also compared Bengaluru’s metro fares with other major cities, noting that a 20–25 km ride in Bengaluru costs ₹80, while a 32 km journey in Delhi costs ₹64. Similarly, Mumbai’s 12–18 km route costs ₹30, whereas Bengaluru commuters pay ₹60 for 10–15 km. He pointed out that while Mumbai’s maximum fare is ₹70, Bengaluru charges ₹90 for distances beyond 25 km.
“Metro fares in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Nagpur are 25–50 per cent lower than Bengaluru’s,” Surya said, adding that although the overall fare revision was announced as 51.5 per cent, the most commonly used distance slabs (8–15 km) have witnessed hikes of nearly 70 per cent, burdening daily commuters.
BMRCL officials, according to reports, have assured that a formal clarification will be issued soon.
“Public transport must remain affordable and accountable. Such lapses erode public confidence in urban mobility systems like Namma Metro,” Surya said.
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Sangh Parivar still afraid of Mahatma Gandhi: Kerala CM
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his 78th death anniversary and claimed that the Sangh Parivar was still afraid of him and his memory and that is why his name was removed from the rural employment guarantee scheme.
Vijayan, in a Facebook post, said that Gandhi was killed because of his uncompromising stance on secularism and his vision of a pluralistic India that embraces diversity and disagreement.
He claimed that the Sangh Parivar was afraid of the memory of the Father of the Nation and hence his name was removed from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
"Why are they still afraid of Gandhiji? The answer is simple. Gandhiji's life and vision are the exact opposite of the politics of hatred and alienation envisioned by the Sangh Parivar," the CM contended.
He further claimed that the Sangh Parivar was trying to remove Gandhi from the lives of the ordinary people.
Vijayan said that unity in diversity was "the foundation stone of the Indian Republic" and everyone should be committed to protecting it from the "totalitarian tendencies that suppress dissent".
He claimed that there were certain forces which were trying to "rewrite history and elevate communal murderers as heroes" in order to lead the country towards totalitarianism.
The Marxist veteran said that Gandhi was "not assassinated by a man named Godse, but by an embodiment of the politics of hatred promoted by the Sangh Parivar" which is still trying to attack and destroy the Constitution and the democratic values of the country.
He said that Gandhi's martyrdom was a constant call for the anti-communal struggle.
Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan too claimed that the Sangh Parivar was afraid of Gandhi.
In his message on Facebook paying tribute to the Father of the Nation, Satheesan said that Sangh Parivar was even afraid of the memories of Gandhi and that is why they were "erasing books and writings" to hide things from people.
He too said that the assassin of Gandhi was not just a man, but an ideology.
Satheesan said that even though the Sangh Parivar shot him down, Gandhi still lives on after his death.
Gandhi, the most prominent face of India's freedom movement, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on this day in 1948.
