We as a nation rarely think before leaping. We have the predilection for doing it the other way around. We plunge feet first into anything wishing away adverse consequences of our rashness. Having created problems we begin to address them only after they become crises. 

It is in keeping with this policy that successive governments have divested the State of many a venture or given the private sector free rein to ruin state institutions under the false pretext of competition.

The price that the country has had to pay for such ill-conceived and hasty programmes is enormous. Some of them are fraught with huge external costs as well. The plight of the commuting public is a case in point. One of the first few casualties of the unbridled economic liberalisation was the public transport sector. There was no doubt a pressing need for private sector participation in that vital field in the post 1977 period to facilitate the expansion of the economy. But, the JRJ government mishandled the re-emergence of the private bus service. It threw caution to the wind and allowed every Tom, Dick and Harry to operate a bus. As a result, today, there are 15,000 persons operating 17,000 private buses.

What the UNP government at that time only wanted was to look after the interests of its supporters who had been deprived of political patronage for seven years under the United Front government (1970-77). While private buses were mushrooming on roads, guided by Rafferty’s rules, politicians lined their pockets by stripping the CTB of its assets. Nay, they committed a daylight robbery! State owned buses were fraudulently condemned, purchased at auctions, pushed out of depots and driven away. 

The end result of this political project was the debilitation of the CTB and the creation of a godzilla-like private bus industry, which has become a law unto itself. Its hubris is such that it even defies the law of the land and waves the strike weapon to make governments fall in line.

It is heartening that the Supreme Court has told the private bus Mafia where to get off. Putting private bus crews in uniforms was long overdue and it should have been done at the very beginning. This is something that should be introduced to the CTB as well. In the good old days, it was mandatory for CTB crews to wear uniforms.

Indiscipline is so prevalent among private bus workers that President of Private Bus Owners’ Association Gemunu Wijeratne once chose to call them ‘thirisannu’ (animals). And they have always lived up to their reputation! They have caused hundreds of lives to be destroyed in disasters which could have easily been avoided and turned their contraptions into hellholes where commuters’ rights don’t exist. People are wary of putting up resistance even if they are abused or threatened for fear of reprisals at the hands of the scum of the earth in the garb of conductors/drivers. There are, of course, decent human beings among them but sadly they are a miniscule minority.

A prerequisite for turning the private bus trade into a people friendly service is disciplining bus operators and their crews, who have been pampered all these years by successive governments. A uniform is a straitjacket of sorts and putting bus crews in uniforms is a step in the right direction. They, we believe, must also be made to wear identity cards.

The private bus industry involves a number of external costs such as air contamination and noise pollution. The police have attempted to nab the errant operators of belching buses that release clouds of thick black smoke into the atmosphere for want of proper maintenance. The bus Mafia has succeeded in putting paid to such attempts with the help of their political patrons and high ranking police officers, some of whom are also proud owners of private buses.

There are three ways in which private buses contribute to noise pollution. They have megaphone-mouthed conductors who never give their rude tongues a rest. Buses have boards indicating their destinations in addition to route numbers but those characters make ear-splitting noises by yelling the name of every junction on the way. Drivers love to make a public display of their sound systems. Music is said to be therapeutic. But, private buses have turned it into torture! The word ‘silencer’ is a misnomer when it comes to private buses. We have published many letters on the opposite page from irate citizens tortured by the noise emitted by private buses whose silencers have been fitted with peculiar gadgets. The public will be ever grateful to the Supreme Court for its order that the private bus operators sort out the silencer mess immediately.

Both private bus owners and commuters will benefit from the order that ticketing machines be introduced. Most private bus conductors ignore the legal requirement of the issuance of tickets to each and every passenger. Therefore passengers are without of a receipt for their payment as well as proof of travel in case of an accident or being challenged at checkpoints. Conductors also make a fast buck at the expense of bus ‘mudalalis’ by not issuing tickets.

Private bus operators don’t care a damn about time tables. They may adhere to departure times but thereafter buses stop at every lamp post and every junction inconveniencing the voiceless passengers immensely. They are in a mighty hurry only when they overtake others. Making them stick to timetables is essential for disciplining the private bus Mafia notorious for turning public roads into race tracks and blocking them at their whims and fancies.