Rs34,000 refunded to passengers in action against excess fares

HYDERABAD: The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) on Sunday took action against the non-implementation of the inter-city public transport fares after the recent decrease in the prices of petrol.

RTA Hyderabad Secretary Saleem Memon conducted checks near the Hyderabad Bypass against the transporters who have been charging excess fares from the public so that the fares of passenger vehicles can be enforced.

On the instructions of the secretary of the Sindh Transport & Mass Transit Department and the Hyderabad deputy commissioner, inter-city public vans and buses were stopped and their fares were checked.

The staff of the RTA and the traffic police jointly stopped and checked 78 passenger vehicles going from Hyderabad to Karachi, Matiari, Nawabshah, Khairpur, Sukkur, Multan, Faisalabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Dadu and Larkana.

The RTA Hyderabad secretary inquired the amount of fares the passengers had paid, then got them refunds from the drivers and conductors. Due to the checking, Rs34,000 were returned to the passengers, while Rs9,500 in fines were imposed for the excess charging of the fares.

The RTA secretary said that the transporters take advantage of the holiday rush and charge more than the fare fixed for the inter-city passengers. After petrol prices decreased recently, the transport secretary issued a circular for checking the fares on the instructions of the caretaker chief minister. The RTA secretary for the Hyderabad region said that since the diesel and petrol prices have decreased, transporters should charge passengers the fixed fare to provide relief to the public.