RAWALPINDI, March 9: The owners of public transport vehicles, that ply on the general bus stand, Pirwadhai, Kalar Syedan route, are fleecing commuters under the very nose of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), people complained on Sunday.

A number of commuters told this reporter that none of the transporters possessed the fare lists approved by the RTA secretary in September 2002. According to the list, commuter are to be charged 33 paisas per kilometre.

The people regretted that the transporters charged them arbitrarily. “When a passenger asked a transporter to show the fare list, he said the list went against their interests, hence, it had been rejected by their union leaders in front of the RTA secretary”, Safdar, a commuter, said.

He said some commuters had also shown the photocopies of the fare list to the transporters, but the latter termed the list as fake.

Mr Safdar said the transporters charged them Rs20 to Rs25 from Kalar Syedan to the GBS, instead of the actual fare of Rs17. Similarly, from Kalar Syedan to Rawat, Rs11 to Rs12 was being charged, while the actual fare was Rs9. From Sowan to Kalar Syedan, the fare was Rs11, but the transporters demanded Rs15.

The most affected people in this situation are office workers and students, who travel on the route daily. Exchange of hot words and brawls between transporters and commuters have become a daily routine, a man said.