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Semi-luxury service a fraud

The semi-luxury bus service operators who overcharge passengers will be apprehended and prosecuted, Transport Ministry Secretary Sumith Weerasingha told the Daily News.

He said this bus mafia charging inflated rates provides less facilities than expected from the semi-luxury service. "They will be fined if anybody complains about overcharging and for providing normal bus service facilities. If the same offence is repeated, the fine will be doubled or their route permits will be cancelled, the Secretary said.

He said though this is the scenario in almost all the routes, no one complains about this fraudulent act. "Therefore, we cannot take any legal action against the culprits. The public must come forward to weed out these malpractices", he said.

The semi-luxury bus service is an illusion. The bus fares are high while the term semi-luxury is a misnomer, a regular passenger from Matara told the Daily News. Nobody in the administration takes this seriously. Bus conductors charge fees according to their whims and fancies, he said.

This problem was presented to the authorities but all efforts were in vain. Bus conductors take the money saying they are giving semi-luxury service.

But they pick up all the passengers from every halt like the normal bus service. Passengers have to travel amidst many hardships ignoring harsh words of bus conductors a woman told the Daily News.

When passengers protest, bus conductors say they were only doing the bidding of the bus owners and that they won't be paid if the collection is low. Passengers are asked to complain to the either bus owner or the regulatory body, another passenger said.

Sri Lanka Transport Board spokesman said they were trying to minimize malpractices of the semi-luxury bus service.

However, due to some legal loopholes and demand for passenger transport, they cannot stop overloading. But attention has been focused to either cancel or enforce the law to prevent fraud by private bus operators.

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