News
North or south, buses run on bribes: Old-time operators
A new system of issuing private bus permits has run into corruption allegations but the authorities have defended it saying it is designed to eliminate illegal activities.
Nearly 4,000 boats are blocked by the sand bar formed between the sea and lagoon
Private bus operators say the new system was designed to favour a new breed of politically connected people who run their buses on the Southern Expressway and on the Jaffna-Colombo route. They charge that they have been discriminated against in the issue of bus permits and this unfair practice is continuing with the connivance of the Private Transport Services Ministry, the National Transport Commission (NTC) and other relevant authorities.
An operator who holds a permit to run his bus on the Jaffna-Colombo route told the Sunday Times that the entry of several politically connected bus operators who run their buses without valid permits had slashed his revenue and many old-time bus operators had returned their permits to the NTC.
Another old-time bus operator P. Gangaetharan said he sold his bus because he could not run his service profitably after spending Rs. 1 million to get a route permit
A cross-section of boats which are unable to leave.
and paying Rs. 100,000 rupees a month to the NTC and other authorities. “With a dip in income I could not keep the bus service going,” he said.
Mr. Gangaetharan said that with the authorities and the police turning a blind eye, the racket had become so huge that about 65 per cent of the buses running on the Jaffna-Colombo route did not possess a valid permit.J. S. Jayawickrama who has been in the business since 1985 said the regular bus service providers had been dealt a big blow with the entry of new operators on the Southern Expressway. He charged that there was no fair play or transparency in the issue of route permits to run buses on the expressway.
He charged that 13 new operators had been issued permits to run buses on the expressway and the manner in which it was done reeked of corruption. The permits were given on a recommendation from the Matara Private Bus Company and a former top official of the NTC was involved in the scandal, he said.
A boat stuck in the sand
Mr. Jayawickrema said the entry of new players and the inability of old-timers to run buses on the expressway had hit his business hard and only six of his ten buses were now in operation. He also charged that the Matara Private Bus Company collected Rs. 100 from a bus a day for a welfare fund but he felt that this was a form of extortion.
The charge of these bus operators was endorsed by the Lanka Private Bus Operators’ Association (PBOA) chairman Gemunu Wijeratne.
He said the NTC ignored the tender procedure in granting permits to 13 new operators, following a Cabinet decision on a recommendation submitted by Private Transport Services Minister C.B. Ratnayaka.
“We requested the Government to grant permits to operate 50 buses on the
A barrier was created to prevent the formation of the sand bar, but its construction stopped suddenly
expressway, but our request was rejected. If our request had been accepted, the Government would have earned Rs. 2.4 million a year from each bus,” Mr. Wijeratne said.
He said expressway bus operators earn more than Rs. 80,000 a day while those on the regular route earn less than Rs. 3,000 a day.
Mr. Wijeratne said he had learnt that a Cabinet-appointed committee would investigate the manner in which permits were granted to bus operators on the expressway and called on the authorities to probe the bus permit racket on the Jaffna-Colombo route.
The sea beckons, near but yet so far... barred by a sand bar
Minister Ratnayake, however, denied the charges and said the expressway bus permits were issued on payment of Rs, 1.2 million or Rs. 1.5 million following a strict tender procedure and the evaluation of the condition of the buses and their services in accordance with a point system the experts had devised.
When asked about the alleged rackets on the northern route, the minister said they should be stopped.
“If a private bus leaves from Hambantota for Jaffna, the bus conductor has to keep a stack of 100 rupee notes to pay bribe takers along the route. This has to stop and must be stopped. With the help of official and non-official bribe-takers, illegal private bus service providers continued to exploit the state law,” the minister said.
A group is making a killing charging Rs. 1,000 to drag a boat across the sand bar
NTC chairman Renuka Dushyantha Perera blamed private bus owners for institutionalsing the system of corruption along the northern route.
“They started gratifying various officials at the early stages when they violated the law. Now it has become a must and the bus owners are in a dilemma,” he said.
He said the NTC along with the Police was taking measures to end the corrupt dealings on the northern route.
Mr. Perera said the Cabinet had taken a policy decision to enhance the quality of private bus transport service and appointed a committee comprising Finance Ministry officials for this purpose.