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Showing posts from February, 1973

NK's Post

Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...

Prices rise in Bhopal: Wheat @Rs 1.20 kg

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NK SINGH Perhaps never since the Second World War, the extraоdinary 'slack' year of 1966-67 interluding in-between, the prices had gone up so rapidly in the history of Bhopal as in the year 1973. The consumers' price index for Bhopal, which went up from 100 in 1960 (base year) to 199 in 1972, showed a startling rising tendency this year. It shot from 212 in January to 257 in October, and if the persistent trend is any indication, it must have galloped to 270 by now, a rise of about 60 points. Prices of all the essential commodities, especially cereals, pulses, edible oils condiments and spices, showed an alarming increase, most of them shooting up by 50 to 60 per cent as compared to the previous year. Fuel touched an all-time high, and firewood went up by as much as from Rs. 10 to about Rs. 22 per quintal.  Scarcity On top of all this, there was a persistent scarcity of many essential commodities throughout the year. baby food, ghee, Bread, suji and maida were not available...