Diwali Rush – Pune police, RTO fine 45 bus operators for charging high fares

Sumit Singh

Pune, October 24, 2019: The Diwali festival is round the corner and people are rushing back to their hometowns to celebrate the festivals. This has led some bus operators to charge exorbitant fares.

According to Pune traffic police and regional transport office (RTO) officials, the bus operators cannot charge more than 1.5 times the normal fare charged by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses. However, it was seen that many buses starting from Sangamwadi bus stand, under Yerwada traffic division, were charging high fares.

Ahead of the Diwali rush, DCP (traffic) Pankaj Deshmukh had convened a meeting of bus operators and conveyed the government decision of not charging more than prescribed fare.

However, many operators were still charging high fares. The police had received complaints on WhatsApp number as well as their Twitter handle. Accordingly, the action was taken against 45 buses on Wednesday. In future if they continue to charge more fare, then criminal cases will be registered against them, police stated in a press release.