August 14, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 15, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Aug 13: Secretary Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Tariq Mehmood has decided to take action against a private transport company for violating rules on franchised routes and indulging in overloading and overcharging, official sources told Dawn here on Wednesday.

The decision has been taken in the backdrop of a rebuke to the Authority from the President House for not taking action against the company despite repeated complaints of overloading and overcharging from the commuters.

“The secretary RTA, Tariq Mehmood, has been directed to impose heavy fines and register cases against those transport companies, which violate rules,” the source said.

The President House received a letter from Ajab Khan, a military officer, in which he complained that some pickpockets had deprived his wife of Rs2,500 while travelling in a bus of the company.

The military officer blamed overcrowding for encouraging the pickpockets to continue their activities in the company’s buses. “My wife says the bus was so much overcrowded that she was sandwiched between the commuters and the windscreen, the officer complained.

He said dozens of such cases took place daily, as the private company had failed to buy the required number of buses. Besides, he added, since most of the routes on which the company plied its buses were franchised, therefore, the other public transport companies were not allowed to ply their vehicles on these routes.

Consequently, the commuters have no other option but to travel in the overcrowded buses of the company, the complainant said.