October 08, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 25, 1428

MUZAFFARGARH, Oct 7: Transporters are allegedly overcharging commuters on almost every route in the district while the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has failed to implement the official fare list.

The government has fixed 45 paisa per kilometre fare but transporters are charging Rs1 per km and in some cases more than Rs1.

The total distance from Muzaffargarh to Mahmoodkot is 15km, but wagon owners charge Rs20 per head against the official rate of Rs9.

Syed Farhat Gillani, an official of the district government, says he travels from Mahmoodkot to Muzaffargarh daily and pays Rs20.

Malik Taseer Hassan says he is a student of Bahauddin Zakaria University and travels from Muzaffargarh to Multan everyday and pays Rs30 per trip. The distance from Multan to Muzaffargarh is 35km and the official fare is Rs15.

The actual fare from Muzaffargarh to Kot Addu is Rs23 but commuters are charged Rs35 per head.

From Muzaffargarh to Jatoi, the approved fare is Rs37.40 but every commuter has to pay Rs55 per trip.

When this correspondent talked to bus and wagon owners, many of them said despite overcharging, they hardly made their both ends meet because they had to pay monthly amounts to traffic police and bus stand owners.

They said now and then the government increased the prices of petrol and diesel which also raised their expenditure. They said the prices of spares parts of buses and wagons had increased manifold.

When contacted RTA secretary Ataul Haq said he had constituted new lists of fare according to government rules and sent the same to bus associations. Mr Haq said he had asked the traffic police to check buses and vans whether they had displayed fare lists. He said heavy fine would be levied on the driver in case of violation.

The secretary said following orders of district coordination officer Dr Akhtar Nazir Warraich, he had set up a cell wherein commuters could submit their complaints about overcharging. He said action would be taken in case of receipt of any complaint.