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| Monday, 27 September 2004 |
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Private bus operators threaten to strike from tomorrow by Rajmi Manatunga Transport Minister Felix Perera yesterday condemned the unilateral decision by private bus operators and their threat to strike from tomorrow saying it was "totally unreasonable" to harass commuters by such arbitrary action. Perera told the Daily News that the private bus operators' decision is based on a wrong policy to jump to an islandwide strike as soon as the diesel prices go up without any consultation with the transport authorities. "There are institutions like the Transport Ministry and the National Transport Commission (NTC) to whom they could address their grievances. But on the contrary they are acting in a very irresponsible manner," the Minister said. Commenting on the bus operators' demands, the Minister said that a 15 per cent bus fare hike was out of the question. "That is not fair by the commuters. A future fare hike could only be decided according to the NTC's national policy on private bus fares," he added. Meanwhile, the bus service is poised for a breakdown from midnight tomorrow with private bus operators threatening to strike owing to the latest diesel price hike. The decision was taken at a discussion yesterday between representatives of the Lanka Private Bus Owners' Association (LPBOA) and the All Ceylon Private Omnibus Owners' Federation (ACPOOF), the two main associations representing private bus operators. The threat of a full scale strike which is to commence midnight tomorrow follows a token strike by private bus operators on Saturday which paralysed the bus service. ACPOOF Secretary Anjana Priyanjith told the Daily News they will continue with tomorrow's islandwide strike threat until the Government takes steps either to provide diesel to bus operators at the previous price or increase bus fares by 15 per cent. LPBOA Chairman Gemunu Wijeratne said Friday's Rs 6 diesel price hike has left the private bus sector incapable of carrying out its operations. "Most of the long distance buses have already stopped operating because owners are unable to bear the burden of the increased diesel price. "We have informed the National Transport Commission and the Secretary to the Transport Ministry about the situation," he said. Meanwhile, bus operations were largely paralysed yesterday following Saturday's lightening strike with only a handful of buses operating on long distance services like Hatton-Colombo, Matara-Colombo and on the 125 and 177 routes. However, most short distance bus services in the Western Province and other parts of the country continued their operations. Sri Lanka's passenger transport sector is dominated by a network of some 17,000 private buses comprising over 60 per cent of the total fleet while the number of buses run by CTB hardly accounts for 4,000. |
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