Peshawar: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the Road Transport Authority (RTA) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ensure that reduced fare was charged by the public transport vehicles being run on CNG.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad khan andJustice Mazhar Alam Miankhel directed the government to ensure that each of the CNG fitted public transport vehicles should install fire extinguishers so as to avoid accidents.
The bench disposed of a writ petition filed by the Human Rights Commission South Asia through its representative for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa/Fata Abdus Samad Marwat against charging of excess fare by the CNG operated public transport vehicles.
The court also directed the provincial government to remove additional seats fixed in the public transport vehicles for accommodating passengers more than the sanctioned limit.
The bench ordered that special committees should be constituted for checking the CNG kits in these vehicles as they had observed that substandard kits had been used due to which many accidents had taken place.
The petitioner prayed the court to direct the RTA to issue a notification for decreasing the fare being charged by the transporters.
The additional advocate general, Naveed Akhter, appeared along with an RTA official and informed the bench that the authority had already issued fare list for the CNG fitted buses, which was 25 per cent less as compared to diesel operated vehicles.
Mr Marwat contended that the government had not been implementing the said fare list due to which the passengers had to suffer.
Furthermore, he prayed to direct the respondents to formulate qualitative standard and proper precautionary measures for CNG vehicles to protect the lives of passengers.
The petitioner stated that after the introduction of CNG in the vehicles no qualitative standard had been formulated by the provincial government for safety of passengers.Meanwhile, the bench ordered the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to start installation of a grid station at Regi Lalma Township with in 25 days.The court also directed the provincial government and Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) to resolve the land dispute between the tribal people and provincial capital in the township within a month.
The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Save Regi Township through its president Mohammad Maroof stating that two decades ago they had paid money for plots in the township but so far they had not been handed over possession of their plots.
The chief justice expressed annoyance over the delay in completionof development work in the township observing that the project had to be completed by 2014. It was added that the project was worth Rs7 billion and due to delay the cost had been enhanced to Rs27 billion for which someone had to be made accountable.
The director general of PDA, Qazi Laiq, stated that they had increased the number of police posts in the area and enhanced security there.
He added that land had also been allocated to Pesco for establishment of a grid station. The DG said that people had also started constructing residences in some of the zones whereas work was in progress.
Copyright 2008 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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