Senior BRS MLA and former Minister T. Harish Rao launched a scathing attack on the Congress government for raising RTC bus fares by 50 percent just before Bathukamma and Dasara. He said the move amounted to exploiting people during a time of celebration when lakhs of passengers were preparing to travel to their hometowns. Rao termed the decision as “shameful” and “a crime against people’s happiness.”

The BRS leader alleged that the fare hike was being disguised as “festival special buses,” even though the number of buses had not been increased. Instead, he said, RTC was simply putting up “special” boards on regular buses and extracting higher charges from the public. Rao stressed that this was nothing but a money-making tactic at the expense of common passengers, calling it a deliberate attempt to burden families already dealing with rising costs.

Harish Rao further questioned the Congress’s claim of people-centric governance, stating that depriving citizens of Telangana of their festive joy cannot be called service. He demanded an immediate rollback of the fare hike and urged the government to prove its commitment to the welfare of ordinary people. Rao warned that such policies would backfire politically, as people would not forgive a government that “plays with their sentiments” during festivals.