KARACHI (PPI) - In wake of heavy rush of passengers at terminals of inter-city buses, going to their homeland to celebrate, the owners of private buses have arbitrarily increase the fares on different up-country routes. On all inter-city bus termini including Jumani Arcade Old Subzi Mandi, Al-Karam Square, Taj Complex, Saddar, Cantt Station and Patail Para bus owners have increased fare by Rs200 to 300 per seat. The buses plying on Balochistan routes including Quetta are over charging Rs300 from each passenger. It was also observed that in many buses and coaches more passengers were being boarded than the seat capacity. The extra passengers have to travel by sitting on stools between the rows of seats, or to sit on roof of buses. The buses plying from Cantt station to Lahore and upper and lower Punjab routes have also increased the fare byRs200-300 per passenger on routes including Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Sadiqabad, Sialkot, Sahiwal and others cities. These buses last month had been charging fare of Rs1400 for Lahore but now they had increased it to Rs1600. Some buses were even charging fare of Rs1700 per seat for Lahore. Most of the buses were not issuing tickets of these increased rates to passengers to avoid any action by the government. Likewise, the buses run from Saddar terminal to different cities of the Sindh including Sukkur, Larkana, Jocababad, Nawabshah, Khairpur, Neusheroferoz and others have also increased the fare by Rs100-200 per seat. The coaches plying on Karachi-Nawabshah routes have increased their fares from Rs280 to Rs400, and some even charging Rs450 per seat. Likewise, coaches have increased the fare for Larkana from Rs400 to Rs500-550 per seat. The coaches running from Taj Complex for Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Chakwal and other cities have increased fare by Rs200-300 per seat. The coaches charging Rs1600 per seat for Islamabad and Rawalpindi before Ramzan were now charging Rs1800-1900 per passenger. In the same manner the buses at Patail Para terminal have arbitrarily increased fare by Rs300-400 per seat. These buses ply from Karachi to Mansehra, Muzzaffarabad and other areas. When the bus operators were asked about the illegal increase in the fare, they said that they were not doing this happily. They said they were faces losses of Rs50000 per each trip as our buses returning from Lahore are coming empty. They said they have to bear the cost of diesel, charges of toll plazas and wages of driver and conductors. Passengers said they were compelled to pay extra fare because they had to celebrate Eid with their families and relatives. They regretted that the government was least concerned to their plights and given a free hand to transporter mafia to fleece the passengers.