Dear Editor,
With cunning strategies, the minibus union and the Ministry responsible devised a method to fool the commuters with empty promises and with brutal bullyism. They’ve imposed an unconscionable fare increase that created additional burden on us without any sort of compromise or fulfilling even a fraction of their promises. With all that’s happening, the unconscionable increase has been imposed on commuters and whilst they surrender themselves to the increase, they are still forced to travel under the same disgraceful conditions, despite the glorious promises of reform for the minibuses by the union and Ministry.
Some minibuses were quick to impose the increase even before the stipulated time and many rushed to paste up the new fare structures on their vehicles to inform commuters of the increase. Mind you, the last increase of eight dollars was never approved by the previous administration. Instead the relevant Ministry at that time advised commuters to carry the exact fare. Now the fare should have been eighty dollars but ironically, it’s one hundred dollars. My view, an increase of forty dollars instead of twenty as suggested by the union and Ministry.
Editor, Almost all the schools on the West Coast of Demerara, East Bank Demerara and the East Bank Essequibo have traffic ranks on the public road in the vicinity of the school to assist
schoolchildren crossing the road in the morning and afternoon. Surprisingly, many minibuses with overload pass these officers. Some even stop at the officer’s signal to allow children to cross and continue their journey even though the officer could see the lawlessness.
Many bus seats are uncomfortable to sit on and in some, the presence of sharp edges inflict damage on you or your garments. In my opinion, all the glorious promises of a better service that were attached to the fare increase were just a fly-by-night concoction devised by the union and the Ministry just to impose the increase. Conveniently we are seeing images of bigger buses and hearing of better service after the increase has taken place. The hypocrisy is indeed real!
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
