President
Maithripala Sirisena,
President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Hon. President,
I am happy to learn that your timely intervention in the ongoing strike by the bus operators paved the way for them to suspend the action until consultations are made with the concerned parties.
If the proposed discussions are going to result in the abolition of the proposed fines or bring about substantial reductions, I would kindly appeal to you to consider the following before you sit down with the bus operators in this regard.
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There are no properly constituted passenger associations to represent the vast travelling public who have to be at the mercy of bus drivers and conductors daily and to suffer silently with their abusive and crass attitudes, since the bus crews are acting like a mafia, in addition to being a peril and threat to other road users and pedestrians.
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Very few carry ticket machines. A few others issue pieces or strips of paper that look like tickets but there is no authenticity or relevance to the particular bus. Only buses operated by the SLTB issue tickets properly.
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The majority of conductors working in buses never issue tickets and avoid handing the balance to the passengers. They issue tickets only when signaled by other bus drivers that checkers of transport authority are ahead. Passengers are pushed into the center of buses by ‘shouting’ abusively and they have no access to the conductor to request the balance. When the passenger gets down, the conductor is usually at the other door of the bus, thus avoiding passengers who wish to alight.
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Though there is a regulation that they should wear the prescribed uniforms, hardly any of them wear the uniform.
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The drivers are a menace to other vehicle drivers, especially cars. When they wish to overtake, they blare the high decibel horns or rev up the engine with an unbearable noise so that the cars have no option but to get to a side. They virtually terrorise small vehicle drivers.
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They play unpleasant music on their speaker systems with a high volume and many passengers get down with a headache. No reasoning can persuade them to reduce the sound volume.
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The bus crews or operators should ensure that buses are at least decently cleaned.
So, if you are considering some relief to the bus operators, I would urge you to kindly make the necessary rules and regulations to ensure minimum passenger comforts as I have enumerated above as the buses run with the fares paid by the travelling public. As I know, your interest is the vast majority of the suffering people of this country.
May you have the strength to take this country forward and establish good governance as you pledged before the election and since then.
May the Triple Gem
bless you.
Janitha Devapriya
