KARACHI, March 6: The city government has constituted a vigilance committee to check traffic violations by the operators of Urban Transport Service (UTS) and KPTS Metro buses on different routes of the metropolis.

Transport and communication department of the city government has also rejected allegations levelled by the owners of UTS and Metro buses against the police and the department and termed its proposed wheel-jam strike on Friday as illogical and a mere pressurising tactic.

The officials of transport and communication department said that the transporters were bound to abide by traffic rules and agreements they had made during the launching of the urban transport scheme in 2002.

It was said that the as per rules the transport operators were bound to wear uniforms, to charge the officially approved fares, stop the buses only at the designated stops, keep the doors of buses closed, follow time schedules and to avoid accommodating male passengers in the ladies compartment, but they were frequently violating the rules.

The officials said that the transport schemes were introduced by the city government to facilitate the citizens, but the transporters failed to keep their commitments. They said that a member of the transporters could also be inducted in the vigilance committee to redress the grievances of the citizens.

Meanwhile, the operators of UTS and KPTS Metro buses have renewed their pledge to observe a wheel-jam strike on Friday (March 9) against what they said injustices with them by the police and officials of the transport and communication department of the city government.

A meeting of the transport operators was held on Tuesday with their president Rana Munir Ahmad Khan at the office of UTS Buses Operator Association which was largely attended by transporters. The transporters said that they could not be intimidated by threats of cancellation of route permits and vowed to observe the wheel-jam strike at all cost.

It was informed that about 210 UTS and Metro buses were shifted to the Punjab due to the wrong policies of the transport and communication department and the remaining would also be shifted if the injustices were not stopped.

They said that Sindh transport minister had accepted their demands, but the officials of transport and police departments were bent upon creating problems for them. They termed the cancellation orders of route permits a violation of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965 and 1969.