JUST after passengers using various routes would have been asked to pay higher fares during busy hours on week days, ‘A’ Division Commander, Senior Superintendent, Clifton Hicken, with help to ease the transportation woes, would be conducting a sting operation on every park during busy hours.
Hicken told the Chronicle that once a fixed fare is set for any route, no bus operator has the right to raise that fare. He said the sting operation on the park would not involve officers stationed there, but different officers would be working on different days.
The Route 44 bus park
“Putting different officers to work (on) different days will help passengers a lot. This is because bus operators will not know who is on the sting. They might see one undercover police today, but that doesn’t mean the same one will be there tomorrow, so there is no way a friendship can be built,” the commander said.
Hicken also said that after the relevant authorities would have fixed the transportation problem, anyone caught asking for higher fares would be charged and put to face the full force of the law.
“Whether it be the Tourism Ministry, Transport Ministry, United Minibus Union…once they put a fare to various routes, no bus operator has the right to ask for higher fares” Hicken said.
Only last Thursday, Tourism Minister (ag), Irfaan Ali held a press conference with the United Minibus Union as he sought to sensitise the public on the Government’s position that there is no fare increase, and the current situation which commuters face is unacceptable.
Speaking during the press conference at the Tourism Ministry’s boardroom on South Road, the acting Tourism Minister noted that the Ministry has been monitoring the present situation of fare hikes and unfair treatment of commuters by minibus operators for
several months now.
“Over the past months, we have been receiving many complaints from commuters in relation to the imposition of fares that were not sanctioned by the ministry or any authority that has jurisdiction in terms of the setting of fares,” Ali said.
The Minister noted that the ministry has consistently issued notices that clearly outline the fares to be paid by commuters, and also outline the fares that were not to be paid by commuters; “and still we have been receiving hundreds of letters expressing concerns over fare hikes, especially from the Georgetown zones, 31 (Georgetown to Wales) and 32 (Georgetown to Parika) route zones.”
The Georgetown/Parika route fare has been fixed collaboratively between the United Minibus Union, the Tourism Ministry and bus operators.
(By Asif Hakim)