The Rawalpindi Transport Authority (RTA) is allegedly blackmailing public transport vehicle drivers by fining them almost Rs 5,000 each following the Supreme Court (SC) order for testing CNG cylinder kits.
Some drivers said that the RTA secretary and traffic police were busily checking vehicles’ gas cylinders and had fined Rs 5,000 each to over a dozen vehicles without giving any deadlines to fix the kits and hence avoid the fine.
They added that the secretary impounded many vehicles including taxis when drivers refused to pay the fine.
They complained that many taxi drivers were out of business due to the RTA’s strict action against them, adding that they belonged to poor families could not afford the heavy fine. They also said that they could not pay the hefty fees of CNG cylinder testing.
After SC orders, the public transport vehicles’ drivers faced severe problems because the secretary RTA did not give them any time to test and accordingly adjust their vehicle’s cylinders.
The drivers appealed to the chief justice to take action against RTA.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that OGRA issued fake permission certificates to some influential owners of Hiace vehicles for installing two cylinders even though the Supreme Court had allowed only one cylinder. The owners had paid Ogra Rs 15,000 for the certificate.
