KHAR: The commuters travelling from Bajaur to Peshawar have complained against overcharging by the transporters.

During a visit to general bus stand in Khar and other areas of the agency on Saturday, it was observed that fares were increased manifold during the last couple of days.

The passengers said that owners of public transport vehicles were charging them extra on Bajaur-Peshawar route. “We don’t know about the reason of current increase in fares on Bajaur-Peshawar route. The practice has been continued since the first day of Eidul Azha,” said Jamal Khan, a passenger.

The commuters claimed that fares were increased by 50 per cent. They said that owners of taxicabs had also increased the fares. The owners of taxicabs were charging Rs800 per passenger from Bajaur to Peshawar instead of Rs480 per passenger, they added.

“All the transporters have significantly raised fares on Bajaur-Peshawar route after Eid, but public motor cars have doubled their fears because people prefer motorcars over coaches and buses,” said Janbaz Khan, a resident of Khar.

The passengers said local administration was not taking any step to check fares of public transport vehicles.

Aslam Khan, a resident of Mamond, said that people of the region had brought the issue into the notice of officials of local administration, but to no avail. “We have brought the issue into the notice of the local administration and Levies personnel deployed at the bus stands several days ago, but unfortunately they remained silent,” he added.

The commuters urged the local administration to take notice of increase in fares by the public transporters.

However, the transporters justified increase in fares by saying they took the step owing to increase in the number of passengers. “There are two reasons for the recent increase in the fares. The first one is that almost all vehicles return from Peshawar without sufficient number of passengers and the second is that the number of passengers has been increased after Eidul Azha,” they added.

An official of the local administration, when contacted, said that they had taken notice of the overcharging by public transporters on Bajaur-Peshawar route.

“The administration is aware of the situation and we are committed to ensuring observance of official fare list on all routes whether locals or non-locals,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2015

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