Commuters in Chadoora area of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district alleged that the sumo drivers in the area are overcharging fare, thus causing inconvenience to people to travel from one place to another.
The commuters alleged that public transporters plying on link roads to different areas of Chadoora are overcharging fares and violating the fare rates fixed by the government.
They said the arbitrary overcharging by the sumo drivers continues for many months despite the fact the government has withdrawn the order of 30 per cent extra fares during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The travellers said that the sumo drivers are charging them Rs 5 extra on three kilometres Chadoora- Budgam road.
“From Chadoora to Bugam, we used to pay Rs 10, now we are being charged Rs 15 per passenger,” they said.
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“Similarly from Chadoora to Charar e Sharief, we used to pay Rs 35, but now we are being charged Rs 40 per passenger,” the locals said. “The administration is not taking any note of the issues.”
The locals further added that from Chadoora to Ranger we used to pay Rs 10 or 15 and now have to pay Rs 20.
RTO Budgam Jamshed Ahmad told Good Morning Kashmir that no passengers came forward with a complaint during the inspection drive.
“We also received the same information that the drivers are forcing people to pay more fare but when we did a reality check no one among the passengers came forward,” Jamshed said.
“Still we will again visit the routes and check whether the complaints are true or not. If we find someone overcharging, we will definitely take action against them,” he said.
