Though the Punjab government has reduced transport fares on urban and inter-city routes by five to seven percent, yet most of the transporters in the twin cities continue to charge the old fares, saying that they have not been provided the revised list of fares. As a result, heated exchanges between the conductors and passengers on different routes of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were witnessed on Friday.
However, after the reduction in POL prices, Regional Transport Authority issued a notification about fares of public transport reducing stop to stop fare by Re 1. It was also notified that the minimum fare would be Rs 12 instead of Rs 15.
According to RTA Secretary Owais Manzoor Tarar the new fare has been made effective but passengers say that the wagon operators are not implementing it.
Heated arguments were seen among the passengers and conductors even in clear sight of traffic wardens in Rawalpindi. People have appealed to Rawalpindi district coordination officer (DCO) to ensure implementation of the new fares and warn the transporters that their licenses would be cancelled if they failed to do so. They said that unless this is done, people would continue to suffer.
Some highly agitated passengers reportedly said that the Transporters Association are so powerful that they do not care for the action of the authorities and if action is taken against them, they threaten to go on strike. The passengers said that unless and until the government takes “stern action”, the transport mafia would continue to blackmail the administration.
