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| Tourist vehicles charging exorbitantly; RTO silent | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June21:
As the ongoing tourist season at its peak and with annual Amaranth pilgrimage round the corner, the tourist vehicle operators have started to employ their old trick of charging exorbitant rates from the tourists and pilgrims besides indulging in overloading of the passengers.
Prominent routes where the passengers have to pay more than the prescribed fare include Jammu to Srinagar, Jammu to Doda and Jammu to Poonch besides some of the other destinations.
At these routes, vehicles comprising Tourist Buses, Sumo, Tempo Traveler and Tavera can charge prescribed fare of Rs 300 from Jammu to Srinagar, Rs 300 for Jammu- Poonch and Rs 200 from Jammu to Doda.
But in reality, the vehicle operators charged much more than the prescribed fare at their will particularly keeping in view the heavy rush of the tourists/pilgrims in the state.
Besides overcharging, overloading is also major problem being faced by the passengers these days. This serves as a major reason of road accidents on majority of the ‘unsafe’ and ‘killer’ roads in the state.
According to road safety experts, the major roads in the state are needed to be broadened for the safety of the passengers.
It is pertinent to mention here that every year lakhs of tourists and pilgrims visit the state of Jammu and Kashmir particularly during summer season to pay obeisance to many holy places of the state including Shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi, Amarnath cave shrine, Nangali Sahib, Shiv Khori and Sudh Mahadev besides others scenic spots of the state.
Tourism and pilgrim tourism is an important source of income for those involved in tourism industry. The state of Jammu Kashmir is known to be an important tourist destination and tourists from different parts of the country and world visit here.
Talking to Early Times some of the tourists maintained that charging of excessive rates from the visitors generally affect tourist inflow to the state.
“I had come here to perform pilgrimage of Vaishno Devi along with a group of friends but to our utter dismay we were overcharged for journeys to Katra and Patnitop. Besides paying more than the prescribed fare we also came across the menace of overloading. As vehicles operators carry passengers more than the prescribed capacity and charge more, it will not help tourist industry to grow here since the visitors feel cheated.” stated Disha, a tourist from Delhi.
Some of the passengers alleged that this over loading of passengers by transport operators is in connivance with the traffic police and other transport authorities.
However official sources maintained that fine to the tune Rs 5000 is being charged from the erring operators as and when they are found carrying passengers more than the prescribed limits.
They further said that if the violation of the rules is noticed on two successive occasions, the route permits of the offending operators and license of guilty driver get cancelled.
The sources also said that the department also keeps a close eye on the violators to ensure charging of correct fares and to refrain from overloading.
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