LAHORE, Dec 30: The craze of the district governments and town municipal administrations for easy revenue has deprived commuters of the facilities at bus stands prescribed under the law.

They have built bus terminals without any facilities and declared them as general bus stands for the purpose of recovery of fees by misusing their authority. The condition of approval of general bus stands by the regional transport authorities has been dispensed with as they have become a part of the district governments after the implementation of devolution plan.

All the general bus stands lack basic facilities like rickshaw and taxi stands, bus bays, waiting rooms, tuck shops and toilets. Bus stops along the highways in a number of small towns have been chosen as bus stands for the purpose of recovery of fee ranging between Rs20 and the fare of a passenger.

Transporters have been compelled to operate their buses from these terminals or stops. Passengers cannot travel on the buses of the companies of their choice and have to board one of two buses waiting to pick them. Licences of private bus stands have been cancelled to facilitate the operation of the buses from the official stands.

Private transport companies were operating from their own bus stands till mid-1960s when the civic bodies decided to establish their own bus stands on the pretext of ensuring orderly operation of buses. General bus stands were gradually established in all the big cities and private stands were wound up by cancelling their licences to ensure operation of all bus services from there.

The Badami Bagh stand can be cited as an example of the official bus stand for minting money at the cost of convenience of the passengers. The licences of private bus stands at Naulakha and on the Circular Road were cancelled to shift the bus operations to Badami Bagh when it was established in the late 1960s. Airconditioned buses operating from their licenced stands in the vicinity of the Lahore railway station were shifted to its open spaces without proper facilities in the late 1990s by an order.

The City District Government is collecting over Rs100 million per annum in the form of bus stand fee from the place but has not yet provided facilities to commuters prescribed under the law.