Protest near Harsh Vardhan’s house

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers on Saturday staged a protest near BJP MP Harsh Vardhan’s residence in central Delhi demanding a rollback of the metro fare hike.

The AAP volunteers gathered near Harsh Vardhan’s house and started marching towards the BJP leader’s residence at Tees January Marg but the police put barricades to stop them from entering the MP’S abode.

“AAP workers had gone to the BJP MP’S place to give him roses and to tell him that public was very much troubled over Metro fare hike. Since he is a representative of Delhi people so we request him to support the public and rollback the hike in Metro fares,” AAP said in a statement.

The agitation was part of the second phase of AAP’S ‘Metro Kiraya Satyagrah’ which was launched a day after Delhi metro’s fares increased for the second time in the last six months on October 10.

The Delhi Metro fares were increased from Tuesday despite strong opposition from the AAP government. The minimum fare of Delhi Metro was hiked from ₹8 to ₹10, and the maximum from ₹30 to ₹50, in May this year. The maximum figure went up from ₹50 to ₹60 in the new fare price.

AAP MLAS raised the issue during special sessions of the Delhi Legislative Assembly and a resolution to oppose the proposed hike was passed to this effect as well.

The fare hike has become the latest flashpoint between the AAP government in Delhi and the Bjp-led NDA government at the Centre.