News
Wheels within wheels – buses used for election propaganda
The misuse of state-run buses for the re-election campaign for President Mahinda Rajapaksa is costing the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) money and depriving the public of regular bus services, mostly in remote areas, a trade unionist charged this week.
More than 1,100 buses from all over the country had been deployed to Anuradhapura for a ruling party meeting
Trade unions are planning to take action against top officials of the SLTB by complaining to the Human Rights Commission, Election Commission and the judiciary for not granting leave to employees and for using them without their consent for the ruling party’s election campaign.
All-Ceylon Transport Workers Union (ACTWU) General Secretary Sepala Liyanage said the 2015 election was the worst election since 1978 in relation to misuse of state buses for election propaganda.
Mr. Liyanage said this situation had created concern among people, especially students from rural areas who need transport to sit for Ordinary Level exams this year and people who need buses to travel to hospitals and make other essential journeys.
He said the government was misusing a provision to reserve buses for Rs. 6,000 each without considering that resulting revenue losses needed to be weighed against the fact that a long-distance bus brought in more than Rs. 20,000 daily, especially during the holiday season.
“If the government doesn’t have money to pay the provident fund of SLTB employees how can it pay so much money to use government properties?” Mr. Liyanage demanded.
Ceylon Transport Employees Union (CTEU) General Secretary K.A.E. Britto also accused the government of inflicting losses to the SLTB by using public assets to advantage for the forthcoming election and by not properly maintaining the bus fleet.
He said that SLTB owned 4,600-4,800 buses of which around 1,200 buses had been taken off service due to the high cost of maintenance. About 7,000 buses were required to render an efficient service, he said.
“It is difficult to provide an efficient service with the number of buses the SLTB owns, and on top of that senior officials release buses from depots for election propaganda campaigns without considering the losses the SLTB will sustain,” said Mr. Britto.
According to Mr. S. Ranugge, Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, more than 1,100 buses from all over the country had been deployed to Anuradhapura for a ruling party meeting.
He said he had information that each depot had an average of 75 buses and some depot managers had been instructed by the SLTB to deploy as many as 60 buses from their depots to transport supporters to party meetings.
A depot manager in the Moneragala district said he had cancelled leave requests by depot employees due to such election requirements. Another manager from the district said that his depot had not yet deployed buses for election propaganda campaigns but buses from other areas were to transport supporters for a forthcoming rally in Moneragala.
Rejecting the claims made by trade unions, SLTB Chairman Shashi Welgama said the SLTB had not released any bus for party propaganda purposes without being paid upfront at the time of the reservation. He said that SLTB had not taken any party’s side and would continue to provide a public service.