Unilateral increase in fares causing brawls between commuters, transporters

Brawls and fierce exchange of arguments between commuters and public transporters has become a routine matter with the former levelling allegations of charging extra fares despite non-issuance of any new notification indicating any revision in the prescribed fares.
The commuters are of the view that whenever the government increases prices of petrol or diesel, the public transports at their own increase the fares without getting permission from the concerned departments.
"Most of the public transport vehicles have nothing to do with the increase of petrol or diesel prices as their owners have installed CNG kits into their vehicles," said Asad Mumtaz, a resident of Hassan Parwana Colony urging the fares only be increased if the prices of compressed natural gas are increased by the government. The survey revealed the very fact that majority of public transport vehicles especially wagons are being run on CNG and big gas cylinder laid beneath the seats can very easily corroborate these findings.
Sobia Nasir, a lecturer at a local college, said the local authorities should give a time frame to public transporters to turn their vehicles into CNG after which the fares be associated with the prices of natural gas.
She said it is totally unfair that the transporters raise the fares whenever the prices of diesel and petrol are increased irrespective of it that most of them run their vehicles on gas. The transporters are charging Rs16 from Shershah, Ismailabad and Muzaffarabad to Dera Adda instead of Rs12 as given in the fare list.
Various fare lists were issued by the concerned department time and again in the near past and transporters carry only those list that suit their purposes. Rashid Habib, an employee at a private company, said that different conductors produce different fare lists and no one knows, which the actual one is. "The traffic wardens should keep check over the transporters and ensure that they carry the actual fares list," he said.
The cab drivers are completely immune to any rules and regulations and they charge fares adopting "on-the-spot" strategy. If there is sweltering heat or falling rain then they increase fares on their own because they perhaps think that it is their privilege to do whatever they want to. "If you ask one, two or more taxi cab drivers for a ride to a certain place, all of them would charge different fares because there is no law that can bracket them to a certain level of fares," said Mazhar Javed, an announcer at a local TV channel.