MULTAN: The district administration is yet to hold an inquiry against a former secretary of the regional transport authority (DRTA) who did not take over the charge of local general bus stand for one and a half years despite its upgrade, causing loss of millions of rupees monthly to the provincial exchequer.

The provincial government had upgraded the local general bus stand from ‘C Class’ to ‘B Class’ through a notification (No1375/DRTA) on December 28, 2016, which was also published in the official gazette under provision of rules 253 and 258 of the Motor Vehicles Rules 1969.

As per the rules a B Class general bus stand falls under the jurisdiction of district administration, while the one in C Class category is looked after by the municipal corporation.

So, after its upgrade, the district administration was directed to take the charge of the bus stand. It is pertinent to mention that there are 1,100 shops and five petrol pumps on the premises of the bus stand and all the revenue generated from there in the shape of rent, lease amount etc ought to be collected by the district administration.

Sources said that the then DRTA secretary, Kashif Dogar, instead of taking the charge of the bus stand, concealed the upgrade notification because the affairs of the whole establishment were being unofficially looked after by former provincial minister Abdul Waheed Arrain, brother of municipal corporation mayor Naveedul Haq Arrain.

They said the ex-minister and his brother (the mayor) were not willing to hand over the bus stand’s charge to the district administration allegedly because of its lucrative nature.

The sources said that the then Deputy Commissioner, Mr Nadir Chattha could also not assert the district administration’s right to the control of the bust stand because of political pressure.

Instead of acting himself, the ex-DC left the matter to the discretion of then DRTA secretary Mr Dogar who hushed up the matter by concealing the provincial government notification and did not take the bus stand’s charge, they said.

As a result, the extortionists mafia became more powerful allegedly under the patronage of ex-minister and his brother and openly started collection of ‘bhatta’ (illegal tax) from the transporters and squatters.

Meanwhile, Mr Dogar was appointed as Saddar assistant commissioner and he took the file of the case with him and did not hand it over to Farooq Dogar, the new DRTA sectary, the sources said.

Later, when Kashif Dogar was transferred during the massive reshuffle in connection with the general election last month, he sent the file to the office of the DRTA secretary, who informed DC Mudassir Riaz Malik about the whole issue, they said.

The sources said the DC immediately directed the DRTA secretary, Farooq Dogar, to take control of the bus stand, who acted accordingly.

They said the DC was yet to take any action against the former DRTA secretary.

When asked about the issue, the DC said that the matter “needs to be probed into”.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2018