against ‘illegal’ adda fee launched By Ali Raza
By Ali Raza
LAHORE
THE City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has launched a special drive to identify the ‘ghost contractors’ who are also involved in extorting money from vans and buses in the name of ‘Adda fee’ from across the city.
The phenomenon of extorting money is not a new but presently the incidents of extortion have increased many-fold and most of the van and buss drivers are forced to pay Rs 70 to Rs 150 per day to these ‘hidden hands’ in the name of different government fees and Adda charges.
A recent example of the fact can be verified from a case registered with the Nolakha police station on 14-02-2009. According to the FIR, Muhammad Yasin was arrested red handed while getting Rs 70 from vans on route number 105.
The team of the CDGL also tried to arrest contractor Lala Bashir but he managed to escape from the scene.
As per the rules and regulations of the City District Government Lahore, vans running on city roads are bound to get a ticket of Rs 10 per day from the contractors, but in most cases the contractors are issuing Rs 10 ticket to every van three to five times a day.
The contractors charge Rs 10 per ticket and Rs 30 as CDGL fee from each van, so on every trip a van pays Rs 40 to the contractors and on an average a van conducts three to four trips a day on its route, said a van driver while talking with The News.
He said the contractors had also made different points from where their men get Rs 10 per van. He said that for example a van driver paid Rs 10 at Railway Station, then he paid Rs 10 at Ganga Ram Hospital point, then Rs 10 at Ichhra and finally Rs 10 at the end point.
Sources said the CDGL issued contracts of 86 points where van drivers could stop their vehicles and wait for passengers whereas in actual over 130 points were operative in the city. Sources said besides this the van owners were also running vans on every route without permit in the city.
Sources claimed that under the law, only an official of the City District Government Lahore is authorised to charge a penalty of 11 per cent from a van in case of a violation of route, standing other than the designated halting points or getting a token of Rs 10 from the contractors.
However, in actual the contractors are using this magisterial powers and charging this penalty from the van drivers but the money never goes into the exchequer.
The van owners and drivers urged the government to take immediate action against this ongoing extortion otherwise they would increase the stop-to-stop fare in the city. They said persons collecting this extortion belonged to the contractor of the halting points.
“If someone refuses to pay the extortion money, he has to face serious consequences,” said Boota, a van driver standing at Ichhra.
When contacted, Public Facilities district officer said that he had already constituted a committee to look into this issue. He said strict action would be taken against the extortionists and the CDGL would not spare anybody involved in this scam.
He said the committee would also keep a regular monitoring of the van routes across the city to stop the ongoing extortion from the drivers.............
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