LARKANA, Nov 18: The delay in setting up the district transport authority offices in Sindh after devolving the Regional Transport Authority has given free hand to transporters to raise fares at their own will.

Before the devolution RTAs were functioning in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana, the divisional headquarters.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that the devolution of the RTA remained only on paper as not a single office at the district level had so far been established.

In the wake of curtailing road-checking powers, the revenue generation had also decreased badly.

The RTA office in Larkana, that had once been collecting revenue to the tune of Rs800,000 per year is now only collecting Rs200,000 per year, the sources said.

Depriving the RTA of road-checking authority has encouraged transporters to increase fares at will and fleece commuters almost on all routes.

Public complaints against overcharging and increased fare remained unheeded as the post of secretary of the RTA Larkana is lying vacant.

Summary for granting checking powers moved by the local office was thrown into cold storage by the former DCO.

Since 1983, not a single wagon originating from Larkana to different destinations had renewed ‘route permits’.

Since 1989 to date, 873 route permits were issued to wagons in Larkana but against it 1,500 are on road, 258 auto-rickshaws were given route-permit but now more than 2,500 had littered Larkana city’s congested roads.

Only 95 trucks were granted route permits but against it around 1,000 trucks are on the roads.

Only the number of buses had reduced 318 to 200.

They charge fare as they deem fit, the sources said.

It was learnt that the Sindh government had revised the fares of public transport from on May 10, 2005.

Since then no revision had come in which had provided handsome space to the transporters to fleece the commuters easily.