KARACHI: Ombudsman seeks reports on problems of bus passengers
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 15: Sindh Ombudsman Yousaf Jamal has directed provincial transport secretary, DIG Traffic and the secretary of Regional Transport Authority to submit reports regarding complaints filed about public transport, particularly buses, by April 28.
In the letters to sent the officials, the Director General at the Sindh Ombudsman’s Secretariat, Iqbal Diwan, informed them that separate complaints filed by a non-governmental organisation, Centre for Research and Social Development, had been admitted for investigations by the ombudsman.
He asked the officials to prepare reports regarding the complaints, dealing with the problems being faced by passengers in buses, and submit the same with the ombudsman’s secretariat.
In their complaints, CRSD office-bearers Mohammad Ali and Abdul Qadir had said the government had provided various incentives to the UTS and Metro Bus Service operators so that they could provide better transport facilities to public.
The complainants said a survey of the buses being operated under these schemes had revealed that condition of the vehicles was deteriorating and public continued to suffer.
The observations of the NGO’s survey, as mentioned in the complaints, point out that the vehicles are generally overloaded with passengers and the automatic doors are operated manually which remain open throughout the journey.
The vehicles are driven recklessly and stopped anywhere on the roads to get passengers irrespective of the designated bus stops. The stop bells in these vehicles are not functional and the buses hardly stop when a passenger want to alight. The air conditioning system remains out of order, tickets are not issued to the passengers; male passengers could be seen travelling in the women’s compartment and conductors and drivers do not wear uniform.
The NGO in its complaints say unless some positive action is taken the condition of these vehicles would deteriorate further and the commuters, for whose comfort these buses were introduced, would continue to suffer.
