PESHAWAR: The provincial government is yet to issue a revised fare list to the transporters despite decrease in the prices of petroleum products a few days ago.

The transport operatives are charging the same fare they had fixed on their own after the increase of prices of petroleum products during the government of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and there has been no check in this regard from the authorities concerned.

A local trader Naseem Khan told this correspondent that he used to travel from Peshawar to different cities of Punjab in connection with his business and was paying the same old fare despite the drop in diesel price. He said it reflected the government’s negligence to provide relief to masses.

He said that the worst affected were the traders who had to pay hefty transportation charges for goods consignments. He said that the truckers were also not ready to reduce their charges.

“The government should take immediate notice of the injustice otherwise the traders will have to highlight the issue by holding protest demonstrations,” he warned.

Similarly, the transporters in Peshawar increased Rs10 per stop because of more travel time due to the ongoing work on Bus Rapid Transit. The passengers, who avoid to pay the charges, are not accommodated in the vans.

When contacted, Public Transport Owners Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Khan Zaman Afridi denied overcharging of passengers, saying his organisation had nothing to do with the prices of diesel as all the urban transport was CNG-based.

“The inter-city transport is using diesel, but our vehicles are using CNG,” he said and added that the government had so far not issued any fresh fare list. “We increase the fare whenever price of CNG is hiked,” he said.

Another transporter said that the provincial government had increased the charges at the bus stand from Rs600 to Rs1,800 and in the prevailing situation the revision of fare list would be an injustice.

When contacted, an official of the transport department said that a meeting would be held soon to issue a revised fare list.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2018