Like every year on eve of Eid, people from different parts of the province started leaving the city on Friday to celebrate the festivity with their loved ones at their hometowns.
This time on Eidul Azha, the federal government announced two Eid holidays from Monday to Tuesday but Saturday and Sunday got included as well due to weekend while Wednesday was Iqbal Day, which was a national holiday. Employees of public-sector departments would enjoy leisure time for around 5 days while the private sector and provincial government employees would start their weekend from Saturday.
Long queues of vehicles were observed at the city’s exit points at GT Road, Multan Road and Ferozepur Road with traffic jams being also reported. Rush at Badami Bagh General Bus Stand, Sikandaria Town Bus Terminal and Multan Road was witnessed until late night where people were waiting for public transport. The mass exodus of around three million people from Lahore makes the provincial capital empty with only Lahoris left in the city. People heading home were fleeced by transporters, which added to their miseries.
Due to shortage of trains, transport owners had a good opportunity to fleece people and maximise their profits. Limited vehicles also forced commuters to pay extra money to get good seats to have a comfortable journey. At main bus stands of the provincial capital, fares were almost the same. For Islamabad-bound passengers, the fare increased two days before Eid. The situation was not different for passengers who wanted to move to other 36 districts of the province.
People traveling with families seemed more worried about a comfortable journey, as they were not in a position to travel while facing hardships. Those people who could afford overcharging were found purchasing tickets but many people complained against illegal actions of transporters. Interestingly there was not even a single official of the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) to check overcharging.
Representatives of the District Regional Transport Authority, when asked about complaints of the people, said that apparently it seemed odd but overcharging was just to cover the expected loss. “The vehicles will return empty so who will compensate the transporters?” they questioned. The justification was not enough to address the complaints but this exercise will continue until Chand Raat. They said that a three-member team of DRTA was constituted to check overcharging and transporters violating the fixed fares, would be fined on the spot. People said that the country was already facing multiple crises in form of energy, floods, terrorism, price hike, adulteration and many other evils and overcharging had added to their miseries.
