HARIPUR: The office-bearers of transporters’ union from different parts of the Hazara Division on Wednesday threatened to suspend public transport service across the Hazara if the SNGPL authorities failed to open CNG stations within two days.
The representatives of the transporters’ union from Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra expressed these views while speaking to reporters here. They condemned the SNGPL’s decision to keep all the CNG stations closed from January 1 to 31 for ensuring uninterrupted supply to domestic consumers.
They said that they were not opposed to the decision of preferring domestic consumers over the commercial and industrial consumers but the government and department must also listen to the woes of the transporters who were solely relying on CNG and had to suspend service rendering hundreds of their drivers and helpers jobless.
They suggested that the authorities should prepare a schedule of gas supply in a way that the vehicles could get CNG from 9 pm to 4 am every day as the domestic consumption of gas hardly goes beyond 9 pm for cooking purposes.
They said that on the other hand the transporters who were running their vehicles on petrol and diesel were also facing pressure from the traffic police and passengers who were forcing them to charge the fares approved before the closure of CNGs although the rates of petroleum products have increased manifold and daily use items also registered a spike.
They said that quarrels and arguments among the drivers and passengers was a routine practice due to suspension of CNG. The transporters threatened to suspend the vehicular service by observing complete wheel- jam strike across the Hazara Division if the department failed to resume supply of gas to the vehicles from the CNGs within two days.
Malik Younas, Haji Muslim, Mir Afzal Abbasi, Jan e Alam, Wajid Khan, Nasir Shah and Qazi Farooq were prominent among the office-bearers who spoke to the media.
