Residents of several areas in South Kashmir's Pulwama district complained of overcharging by cab drivers, on various routes.

The passengers alleged of being charged exorbitant fair by passenger vehicles and put the blame on concerned department which, as per them, is watching all this as a mute spectator.
According to the local residents, the passenger cabs on various routes including Pulwama to Trichal, Pulwama to Newa and dozens other routes are charging extra fare.
“I am a private school teacher and am hapless to travel every day in the passenger vehicles. But the drivers are overcharging on the pretext of following COVID-19 protocol, which they hardly care about,” said Shazia, a resident of main town,.
Another local, Mohammad Ayoub said that the cab drivers have doubled the fare from Pulwama to Newa. “Since the lockdown was relaxed, we were asked to pay double fare, which was somehow acceptable given the social distancing norms. However, the drivers have been flouting the norms by filling their vehicles to full capacity while charging double fares at the same time,” Ayoub said, in a perplexed tone.
The locals said that students and other people are suffering worst due to the exorbitant fairs and appealed authorities to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, repeated attempts to contact ARTO Pulwama didn’t materialize.