July 26, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 25: The transporters in provincial metropolis have started fleecing commuters owing to absence of fare list but the government seems least bothered to check the situation.

Talking to Dawn many commuters said that transport operators were overcharging the passengers. They added transport operators were overcharging commuters without following any fare list. “It is strange to note that there is no difference in fare from the General Bus Stand to University Town and from Shoba Chowk to University Town,” they added.

They said that transporters had started overcharging people at their own, adding that the fare from General Bus Stand was Rs12 but they were charging Rs15, which meant that Rs3 were increased in the actual fare.

The Urban Transport Owners Association Peshawar president Jahangir Khan Afridi, when contacted told Dawn that they had increased the fare only by Rs2.

He said the entire responsibility rested with the concerned officials of the provincial government who were reluctant to revise the official fare list.

“The officials of provincial government are least bothered to take the transport issue seriously otherwise they would have so far held a meeting with the transporters,” he said and added that police had also started penalising the transporters in violation of the Police Order 2002.

Earlier, he said, maximum fine used to be up to Rs500 and Rs1000, but now a traffic sergeant could penalise a driver up to Rs5000, especially for not having route permit.He said that licence fee had also been increased more than double. Previously renewal fee, he said, was Rs600 for three years, which was increased up to Rs1300 and Rs300 were charged for new computerised licence.

The traffic rules in NWFP, he said, were completely different and that was why the transporters of province instead of getting the licence here preferred to get the same from Punjab where the renewal fee was also Rs300 for three years.

Mr Jahangir said a 40-member delegation of transporters would meet NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani on Saturday to apprise him of their problems.

The main problem, he said, was hike in prices of the petroleum products, while the second serious problem was about the ada taxes which had been doubled.

Efforts were made to get version of the officials of District Transport Authority but the avoided attending telephone calls.

District Nazim Haji Ghulam Ali said that a meeting of the concerned committee would be convened by the district coordination officer to revise the fare list.

The transporters, he said, had no right to overcharge the passengers at their own and all those doing so would be liable to punishment. About the new fare, he said that fare ratio would be decided as per increase in the price of petroleum products.

He said majority of the people traveling in the public transport happened to be poor and the city district government would never increase their burden illogically. The nazim said the decision would be taken within a couple of days.