Fair fare: City govt to get tough with transporters

LAHORE:

DCO Usman Anwar on Friday directed district officials to take strict action against any transporter found guilty of fleecing passengers. It was decided during the meeting to confiscate vehicles of transporters guilty of overcharging the travelling public ahead of Eid.

A large number of people leave the city for Eid holidays. This year the exodus was set to start on Saturday evening. District officials said that over 4 million people living in Lahore hailed from other places. They said that 2.5 to 3 million people were expected to leave the city before Eid. District authorities said that four teams had been constituted under the regional transport authority (RTA) secretary to monitor fare pricing. Two teams would inspect fares at Lorry Adda.

Most of the inspectors would be monitoring the Lorry Adda as a vast majority of the people used it to leave Lahore. Personal Staff Officer to the District Coordinating Officer (DCO) Tariq Zaman said that the city government would punish anyone found guilty of fleecing the travelling public. He said that transporters found guilty of overcharging passengers would be penalised. Any transporter found guilty of fleecing passengers would be fined and made to return the extra amount to the passengers. District authorities would confiscate the repeat offenders’ vehicle till Eid. He said that if the same offence was repeated for a third time, an FIR would be registered against the manager of the bus stand.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2014.