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...

Once upon a time a political party called SSP had pan-India presence



SSP President Karpoori Thakur. Pic courtesy Rediff

NK SINGH

Sonepur – the very place marks all the difference between the SSP and other political parties whose conferences were held at Ahmedabad, Bombay and Patna. Sonepur is a small village on the side of the Ganga facing Patna while Ahmedabad, Bombay and Patna are…you know.

Acute crisis in the name of ideology has been brewing in the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) since the death of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia three years ago.

As long as he dominated the party, none dared challenge his leadership. But its highly individualistic leadership is now finding it difficult to replace Lohia while the question of collective responsibility is yet to be settled.

The Sonepur national convention of SSP held at Sonepur condemned the CPM Government in West Bengal for its failure to maintain law and order, its stand over Congress split is somewhat like the CPM. “The present split in the Congress has no ideological basis,” notes SSP’s political resolution.

In 1967 assembly election SSP had won 67 seats in Bihar, 44 in UP, 19 in Kerala, 10 in MP, 8 in Rajasthan, 7 in West Bengal, 6 in Karnataka, 4 each in Maharashtra, Assam and Manipur, 2 each in Orissa and Tamil Nadu and 1 seat in Punjab.

The SSP had also increased its tally from 6 to 23 in the Lok Sabha in 1967 election.  (For details, see chart in the article, reproduced below.) 

Excerpts from Frontier 24 January 1970


NK Singh’s report on Samyukta Socialist Party’s Sonepur convention in 1970, published in Frontier of 24 January 1970. P1

NK Singh’s report on Samyukta Socialist Party’s Sonepur convention in 1970, published in Frontier of 24 January 1970. P2

NK Singh’s report on Samyukta Socialist Party’s Sonepur convention in 1970, published in Frontier of 24 January 1970. P3

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