Karachi: By apparently making excuse of increasing inflation, University of Karachi has issued a notification for increment in fare of points from Rs. 5 to Rs.10, a decision triggering a protest in front of points terminal by a group of student.
According to Farheen Zehra, PRO KU, “There has not been increment in fares for years. And to cope up the problem of maintenance and due to petroleum price hike, it is necessary to increase the amount of fare and still these fares are lesser than those of the public buses.”
“University of Karachi is going through financial crises, there is a shortage in allocated budgets from Higher Education Commission and due to this very reason its not a regrettable decision”, she added.
Students have shown mixed response. Some of them protested the issued notification whereas others expressed no arguments except that the management should improve the condition of buses and like fares, the number of buses should also increase.
Narjis Fatima, a KU student said, “public buses allow students concession on fare, if points’ fare goes up to Rs. 10 with fully loaded buses, I don’t find any benefit for choosing point over public bus”.
Another KU student Fatima Mazhar said, “I think it is alright because of the inflation, the long distance these buses cover and the convenience they provide to facilitate students, it is justified”.
Anyone can see a KU point being tilted due to overloading and that is the main cause of major and minor accidents that we often hear about. Usually students travel because of cheaper fare, that was, 5 rupees earlier, and to avoid traveling in two buses,one after another to reach their destinations.
When the problem of overloading was asked Farheen said, “We have got two donated points this year, one from Karachi Electric Supply Corporation and another from Ehsan Foundation. Apart from these two points KU has bought one more point recently with 0% mark up”.
She further said that they had started branding their buses this year, One bus had been booked by Vital tea for branding purpose while one had been booked by Italiano olive oil for their marketing. These all were the strategies to fufil the needs of maintenance of points and to add more points and to minimize over trafficking .
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