Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The private transporters grieved running into heavy financial losses due to a steep decline in the number of women passengers since the announcement of a 50 per cent concession by Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) to women travellers in all types of buses in the state.
They claimed to be reeling under financial crisis and are pushed to starve as their transport business has been affected badly due to the MSRTC’s decision. Many private transport vehicles and black-yellow jeeps are operated to different parts of the district daily from the city. The routes like Paithan, Phulambri and Sillod witness a heavy rush of passengers.
The black-yellow coloured licensed jeeps also underlined that one woman passenger is taking away the whole family or at least one male companion to travel in the MSRTC buses.
The black-yellow jeep is operated in large numbers from Railway Station to Paithan daily. They also claimed that they are on the verge of starving for want of the passengers. It has become hard to earn and feed their dependents.
According to black-yellow jeep operators Santosh Ghodke and Shafiq Shaikh, “Earlier, we used to earn Rs 700–800 daily, not it has dropped to Rs 100-200. The concession to women passengers has affected our businesses badly. Once upon a time, we used to record three trips to Paithan from the city. Now, one trip is made hard. This has pushed us to face financial instability.”