PESHAWAR, Jan 26: Local transport associations have demanded of the government to increase fare on intra-city routes by Feb 1, otherwise they would give a call for wheel-jam strike.

“We have been demanding the local government to allow us to raise fares from Rs3 to Rs5, because of the increase in the prices of fuel, but nobody is paying heed to our grievances,” said Noor Mohammad Mohmand, president of   the Muttahida Transport Confederation, NWFP at a news conference here on Sunday.

According to him, transport fares were raised from Rs2 to Rs3 two years ago, but the diesel prices registered 100 per cent increase during that period.

He said the government had already allowed increase in the fares for all destinations of the province in line with the fuel rates. But the transporters plying their vehicles on city routes were not being allowed to raise fares.

The price of diesel has gone up from Rs12.90 to Rs21.79 per litre, but the transporters were still charging Rs3 per stop from the commuters, which was causing huge losses to them, Noor Mohammad said.

He said each of the 3,000 vehicles in the city paid Rs1,500 as token tax, Rs2,000 as income tax, Rs1,300 for route permit, Rs400 as motor vehicle examination fee and Rs100 for vehicle evaluation per year. The amount collected from transporters under different taxes ran into millions, but the government was indifferent to their problems, he said.

He said in addition to fuel prices, the rates of spare-parts had also registered huge increase and therefore raise in the fare was inevitable for the transporters to meet the expenses.

The district transport authority (DTA) and the city government were reluctant to listen to the genuine demands of the transporters who had invested millions of rupees on their vehicles, he said.

Noor Mohammad said the provincial transport authority had issued a fare-list in July last, wherein the transporters operating on long routes, had been authorized to increase or decrease fares according to fluctuation in diesel prices. However, local transporters had not been extended the same facility.

The transport leaders demanded of the NWFP chief minister to order increase in the fares and warned the government that a wheel-jam strike call would be given if the fares were not raised by Feb 1.

Other transporters including Almas Khan Khalil, Jehangir Khan Afridi, Yousuf Shah and others, also attended the press conference.