Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to initiate crackdown on transport mafia

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Transport and Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussein has directed crack down against the mafia in transport sector and identification of all those government employees involved in supporting the mafia.
Presiding over a meeting here on Saturday, he further directed to ensure implementation on the directives of Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ameer Haider Khan Hoti for making separate compartment for female commuters in the private transport.
Commissioner Peshawar Division, Akbar Khan, Secretaries Transport, Social Welfare and Local Government Departments, AIG (Traffic), Director PDA, Director Transport, Secretary PTA and Secretary RTA also attended meeting. The meeting decided that implementation on the CM's directives would be ensured within a month and the public transport owners would be given one month grace period for making separate compartment from the female passengers.
It was further decided that female compartment would be purely specified for female commuters only and male passengers would not be allowed to sit in the female compartment and in case of violation, action would be taken against the concerned driver and conductor besides impounding the vehicle.
The meeting also took strong exception of the illegal bus stands and unavailability of basic facilities for commuters at the bus stands and ordered the authorities concerned to immediately take action against the illegal stand owners and ensured basic facilities in the bus stands for the passengers. The meeting stressed that income of the bus stand should be spent on the betterment of the bus stand and auction of the bus stands should be made more transparent.
The meeting also decided to take action against those contractors who were charging extra money other than the prescribed government charges and the stand manager/incharge have been asked to report extra charge by the contractors. In case of not reporting the extra charges, the concerned manager/incharge would be responsible for it and action would be taken against him. Secretary Transport specially directed to prepare a viable report for opening own bus stands by the transport department and present it to the Minister Transport immediately.
Mian Iftikhar said, due to illegal bus stands, encroachments on roads and haphazard transport system has multiplied the problems of the traffic and reaching on the point of destination was becoming more difficult with each passing day. Therefore, devising a policy to overcome the issue with the active participation of the concerned government departments and private sector was the need of the hour, he added. The minister directed the authorities of transport department to prepare a policy for management and administration of the bus stands keeping in view the problems of the commuters.