MANSEHRA: People from different walks of life on Tuesday demanded a decrease in public transport fares after the government made a substantial cut in prices of petroleum products.

“The transporters had increased the fares with the hike in POL prices during last month, and now as the government has slashed petrol and diesel prices, the transporters should bring down the fares on their own,” Ajmal Khan, a local resident, told reporters.

A group of locals led by Mr Khan denounced the district administration for not making the transporters to cut fares. He said passenger coaches and wagons running on CNG had also increased fares making an excuse for the increase in oil prices to fleece commuters, but now they were also reluctant to reverse the increase.

Another local, Mohammad Arif said the district administration should make the transporters and traders to slash fares and prices of essential commodities to provide some relief to consumers.

Mr Arif said coaches plying from Mansehra and the rest of Hazara division to Karachi had also put extra financial burden on commuters with the increase in POL prices, but they were yet to announce a decrease in their fares.

Meanwhile, the health department’s Class-IV employees on Tuesday threatened to come onto the streets from October 24 if the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government didn’t entitle them to professional allowance like doctors and paramedics and regularise their services.

“The successive governments have ignored the Class-IV employees for last two decades, and if our demands are not met, we would first hold rallies across the province and then stage a sit-in outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar,” Qari Mohammad Shafee, district president of health department’s lower grade employees’ union, told reporters here.

He said their central body in Peshawar had decided to go on strike and launch a street agitation next week to compel the government to accept their demands.

Mr Shafee said the lower-grade employees appointed from 2021 to 2022 should be regularised and be included in the pension pool.

He also demanded implementing the job quota for retried, deceased and other categories of employees.

Mr Shafee said service structure should also be finalised for doctors and paramedics.

RAIN, SNOWFALL: Hilly parts of Hazara division continued to receive snowfall for the second day on Tuesday, turning the weather cold. Kaghan, Siren valleys and other mountainous parts had started receiving snowfall in the early hours on Monday.

Meanwhile, Mansehra, Torghar, Kolai-Palas, Upper and Lower Kohistan districts received heavy downpour for the second consecutive day, turning the weather chilly.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2023