‘President orders halt to overcrowding of buses’

A news item in The Island of Feb. 6 reported what, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had asked the President of Lanka Private Bus Owners Association (LPBOA), Gamunu Wijeratne, to cut down overcrowding in private buses, as the LTTE is bent on targeting such buses, to maximize the number of casualties. The remedy, as a suggested by the President of LPBOA, is to request the minister of Public Administration, to adjust the office times.

Overcrowding is rampant in private buses as the bus crews are bent on raking in maximum collection, at the expense of safety and comfort of commuters. Remedy for overcrowding would be to augment the present fleet of buses. Recently, president of LPBOA had reportedly remarked that, there are too many buses on our roads. As customary, private bus owners would demand the exact pound of flesh, since more buses would wear their fat purses.

Private bus conductors are the most discourteous of employees, their rash behavior causing annoyance and frustration among passengers.

Even when buses are loaded to capacity, they have favourite places to keep buses halted, with callous disregard to urgency of passengers to get to their destinations, particularly, work places, on time. Ward Place halt, in close proximity to Borella police station, is one such place, where buses are kept waiting for long hours, drivers taking off only when the next bus plying on that route comes behind and blow the horn. When a frustrated passengers ventures to complain about the inordinate delay, conductor comes out with a rude retort, ‘get down and go in another bus’.

A single PC with a whistle, at least in the morning hours, will be a remedy for this situation, but, it is said that even the police connive with these rogue employees of bus mudalalis. They look the other way, when law is flouted.

Notices are prominently displayed that, ticketless passengers will be fined, but in most of these buses, tickets are never issued. There is no punishment for the conductor that charges the fare without issuing a ticket. Return of change is often forgotten. When demanded, will say, "bahinakota ganna". But without tickets, passengers cannot claim the balance money.

According to Buddhist teaching, middle path is the best way of living, but in a private bus, ‘middle path’ is the most disastrous to travel. Squeezed in between two rows of standers on either side, passengers in the middle path are constantly moved forward and backward, as fancied by the conductor, who incessantly shouts, ‘issarahata yanna, passata wenna, meda hira karanna epa’ and so forth. When one attempts to squeeze in between the two rows, those on either side, especially ladies, would frown upon him menacingly, if any of his body parts touches them.

Our genial Minister of Transport, evidently has a genuine desire to redeem bus commuters from the vicious clutches of private bus mafia, but, in the scenario of private buses for out-numbering the CTB bus fleet, precious little could be done, in this regard. If sufficient CTB buses ply on our roads, no one would get into private buses. State should achieve the target of breaking the shackle of private bus monopoly.