Shimla, April 7
The Himachal Pradesh Government has decided to raise the bus fares by 25 per cent with immediate effect.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here today. The hike will fetch an additional revenue of Rs 35.49 crore to the state road transport corporation during the current financial year. The per-km per-seat fare will increase from 58 paise to 73.84 paise after the increase.
The hike will only partially offset the corporation's projected loss of about Rs 100 crore for the year. The Transport Department had proposed an increase of 32 per cent, keeping in view the 70 per cent increase in the cost of diesel, wage bill and other operational costs since the last fare hike effected in October, 1999.
The Cabinet also approved a proposal to increase concessional fares for private schools from 30 single fares to 40 single fares. It decided to constitute a sub-committee to examine other proposals of the Transport Department for improving the financial position of state road transport corporation.
The Cabinet also approved the state Municipal Amendment Bill, 2003, which is to be introduced in the next session of the Assembly. It provides a maximum period of two years for the conduct of elections to the newly constituted municipalities instead of the existing one year. This has been necessitated because elections to the nagar panchayats of Tutu, New Shimla and Dhalli, which were required to be held before February 3, 2003, could not be conducted due to the state Assembly elections in February. It also decided to withdraw the notification declaring Baijnath-Paprola as a municipal area as the Constitution does not allow to dissolve any village panchayat prior to the expiry of its five-year term.
The Cabinet also approved the renaming of the state institute of Postgraduate Education and Research in Ayurveda, Paprola, as Rajiv Gandhi Government Postgraduate Ayurvedic College, Paprola. Accordingly,
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