KASUR, April 5: Travelling by public transport vehicles has become an ordeal for commuters, who have to put up with overloading and overcharging. It is gleaned that more than 20,000 people travel from Kasur to Lahore daily for their jobs and businesses. Hundreds of coasters, buses and wagons leave this city every day.

For a Kasur-Lahore trip, the air-conditioned coaches have increased the fare from Rs33 to Rs40 while the non-AC coaches are charging Rs30 instead of Rs25 without any approval of the authorities concerned.

There are frequent reports of scuffles between the conductors and the commuters over this issue. The bus and wagon crew also misbehave with the travellers.

Besides overloading and overcharging, these vehicles violate the traffic laws on the Lahore-Kasur Road. Most of the wagons plying on the route don't have permits, but the police and the motorvehicle examiners take action against only those drivers who do not grease their palms.

Sources said the police didn't take action against the public transporters because they accepted monthly bribe, which ran into hundreds of thousands of rupees. The wagons that paid bribe had been given special stickers or receipts for their identification.

In addition, hundreds of rickshaws are being run in the city and its rural areas without licences. In most of the accidents that take place here, these rickshaws are involved.

Regional Transport Authority Secretary Muhammad Zaman Wattoo, when talked by this correspondent, admitted flaws in the traffic system and said that situation could not be improved without changing the staff. He said he was reviewing the traffic problems to improve the system.

DSP (traffic) Rao Asif Zaman denied that the police officials had been receiving monthly bribes. The police department, he claimed, was facing shortage of staff. He said there were few officials to control traffic and when they went to the duties for VIPs, the city's traffic became a mess.