PESHAWAR, April 27: An ordinance promulgated by the NWFP governor to streamline the functioning of district transport authorities more than two year ago, has made transport affairs more complicated, official sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

The NWFP Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance, 2002, promulgated, they said, had added to the problems of the vehicle owners. Following the installation of local governments, the provincial government constituted district transport authorities (DTAs) in 24 districts of the province on July 1, 2001, to facilitate vehicle owners in obtaining route permits.

Through the ordinance, the regional transport authorities (RTAs) in the seven divisions were replaced by the 24 DTAs. According to Section 3 (II-a) of the amended ordinance, permits for vehicles plying within a district shall be issued by the DTAs concerned.

Under sub-class (b), permits for vehicles plying within two adjoining districts shall be issued by the DTA of any of the districts subject to a no objection certificate (NOC) issued by the other DTAs.

Permits for vehicles plying in more than two districts will be issued by the Provincial Transport Authority (PTA). Officials at the local DTA argue that the sub-class (a) of the amended ordinance is not applicable because there would hardly be any vehicle needing route permit for a district. Most of the vehicles, he said needed route permits for at least two districts.

Similarly, non of the two districts would be willing to issue NOCs and each would want to issue the route permits and receive the fees from the vehicle-owners, they said. As most of the vehicles ply in more than two districts, they are required to contact the PTA for renewal of their route permits.

The officials said that the setting up of the DTAs has served no purpose as most of the vehicles are being issued route permits by the PTA. The setting up of DTAs has only burdened the exchequer, they claimed.

The officials say that the complicated system has enabled the transporters to ply their vehicles on city roads without obtaining permits. According to an official, 6,320 buses, 700 wagons, 11,077 trucks and oil tankers, 2,642 Datsun and Suzuki pick-ups, 8,945 rickshaws and 280 yellow cabs 280 have got route permits in the city. The number of those plying without route permits would be equal to those having the permits, he said.

According to the sources, the local DTA has nine staff members and no vehicle and the telephone remained disconnected for non- payment. An official said the revenue generated by the office was Rs28.1 million in 2000-01 and Rs26.8 million in 2001-02.

There is no provincial transport secretary and the department is run by a section officer, who has additional charge of the environment department. The officials said the transport department should streamline the affairs like the other province.

Official conceded that the transport system is so bad that of the four-Provincial Transport Authority (PTA), DTA, Motor Vehicles Registration Authority (MVRA) and Traffic Police- departments responsible to streamline the system, none of these is clear about their sphere of responsibility.

An official said that there are vehicles which, according to the rules, are not fit to ply on the road in rural as well as in urban areas, because they have outlived their utility.

There are also smoke-emitting vehicles on city roads, causing inconvenience and respiratory ailments to people, he said and added that no punitive action had been taken against violaters of rules.

The basic problem is the law, which needed to be streamlined in a way that every department dealing with transport system are made to function under a central authority.