LAHORE: A four-hour protest by the rickshaw drivers’ union at the Liberty roundabout on Monday ended only after the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) assured the rickshaw drivers that the company’s enforcement inspectors would scale back on issuing tickets to them over traffic violations.
The rickshaw drivers protesting against what they called unwarranted ticketing by the LTC inspectors, a force similar to the traffic police, blocked Main Boulevard in Gulberg at the roundabout from 11am to 3pm. They raised slogans against the LTC inspectors for issuing them tickets over traffic violations and said that City Traffic Police (CTP) also issued them tickets over similar violations. The union ended the protest after the LTC assured them of “relaxation” in issuance of tickets.
The rickshaw union were subsequently under the impression that the LTC staff would not issue violation tickets to them over the next 15 days. However, LTC officials who talked to The Express Tribune stated that the company’s inspectors would not stop issuing tickets to the rickshaws. They would not aggressively issue challans to rickshaws until the matter was cleared with the traffic police, the officials said.
LTC regulates public service vehicles across the city. It does so through enforcement inspectors for rickshaws, who ensure implementation of standards regarding LPG cylinders, fitness of the vehicle and where the vehicles are allowed. They also issue tickets in case of violations. Traffic wardens also issue tickets to rickshaws for these violations.
The rickshaw drivers’ associations has repeatedly protested against the overlapping powers of LTC and the traffic police and demanded that a single authority should issue the tickets. Rickshaw Union President Majeed Ghauri said that they had been protesting for two years for withdrawal of LTC’s power to issue tickets. He said that LTC should not have the power as this was the subject of the traffic police. “We blocked the road today to protest against these overlapping powers,” he said.
Ghauri said that later in the day they were called for a meeting by LTC officials where they were assured that LTC staff would not issue tickets to rickshaws over the next 15 days. He said if the promise was not kept they would again gather on the roads to protest. He said LTC had promised another meeting with them and the traffic police to address the issue. He said that Mian Mehmoodur Rashid, leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, would take up the matter in the legislature at the next session.
LTC Operations Deputy General Manager Faisal Naseer said that the company was only exercising the powers that the government had granted it. Naseer said enforcement inspectors only ensured compliance with the aspects the company was responsible for. He said traffic violations were not their subject.
He said that the company had decided to extend some relaxation to the rickshaw wallahs in view of the inconvenience their protest had caused. However, he stressed that it did not mean that LTC inspectors would no longer issue tickets to rickshaw drivers. “Soon we will hold a meeting with the traffic police to resolve this matter.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2014.