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GUJRANWALA, Aug 5: Quarrels between passengers and conductors of franchized buses plying on the GT Road from Kamoki to Gakkhar have increased as the owners enhanced the fare twice within two weeks with the connivance of regional transport authority secretary.
The bus owners enhanced the fare two weeks ago from Re1 per stop. They reportedly increased the fare by Re1 per stop again and started charging Rs9 per passenger from Gakkhar to Gondlanwala Chowk and Sheranwala Bagh on Thursday. They also started charging Rs4 per passenger per stop even for a distance of one furlong.
It is reported that some passengers thrashed the conductor of a franchized bus after an exchange of harsh words over the issue while the musclemen of bus owners beat passengers. Women were being disgraced by the conductors when they refuse to pay extra money.
Passengers blamed district administration, RTA secretary and traffic police for "giving free hand to franchized bus owners to violate the law." They also criticized the government for giving monopoly to franchized bus owners by stopping about 500 wagons plying on the routes.
GRANT FOR HOSPITAL: The district government has given a special grant of Rs15 million to the Civil Hospital for the purchase of medicines and construction of trauma centre. This was stated by district Nazim Fiaz Ahmad Chattha at a meeting here on Thursday.
SECURITY: Police beefed up security and deployed commandos at all sensitive places, including mosques, imambargahs and trade centres to avoid terrorist activities.
This was stated by acting DIG Saud Aziz at a meeting in his office here on Thursday which was attended by DPOs and senior officers of Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin.
The DIG directed them to adopt strict security measures in their respective districts. He urged them to continue crackdown on criminals without any fear to maintain law and order situation.
