THE police reported that  around 17:45 hours on April 29, 2013 Basdeo Mangra ,52, of North Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara and his wife were on their way to Georgetown in a route 44 mini-bus in which loud music was being played.

The volume of the music was affecting Basdeo Mangra’s wife and he asked the mini-bus conductor to turn the volume down.  This request was made several times but to no avail as the conductor and the driver refused to lower the volume.
An argument developed between Basdeo Mangra and the conductor, who was armed with an ice-pick and a scuffle between the two men ensued in the vehicle.
At this stage, the driver stopped the vehicle in the vicinity of Kitty, Georgetown and ordered Basdeo Mangra and his wife out of the vehicle and drove away.
 
The police stated that the couple was later in another mini-bus en-route to West Demerara when Basdeo Mangra complained of feeling unwell.  He was taken in the vehicle to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
This is a most unfortunate incident and yet another senseless death which would result in greater hardships for his family/dependants as most likely he would have been the breadwinner.
However, what Mangra experienced on that minibus is a daily occurrence and it was inevitable that one day it would result in death. Unfortunately, it had to be Mr. Mangra being the first victim of the lawless mini-bus culture.
Commuters are being urged to stand up for their rights and some do, but most do not because of the fear of what happened to Mr. Mangra. And as such, commuters bear their agony in silence as most of them who use the mini-buses are ordinary working people and cannot afford to have their own vehicles; and in the absence of a government transportation service they do not have an alternative.
The issue of the lawless mini-bus culture has been with us for a very long time but not much has been done or is being done to deal with it and the greater the procrastination the worse this monster will become like the problem of littering and garbage disposal.
Soon Mr. Mangra’s body will be disposed of and the incident would be forgotten and gone and it will be business as usual until another similar tragedy happens.
But the mini-bus operators are not only harassing commuters with their loud and vulgar music; they are also ruthlessly and rapaciously exploiting hapless commuters by  the overcharging of fares and over- loading, particularly in the evenings when people have to get home. This practice has been going on for a very long time without the relevant authorities addressing it.
Another issue that is ongoing and needs to be addressed is that many of the bus drivers and conductors operate under the influence of illegal drugs and that is one of the reasons why many of them are in  aggressive and violent mood, which results in commuters being verbally and physically assaulted.
This column sometime ago had advocated that plainclothes police officers be deployed periodically on these buses posing as passengers as well it should become law for minibuses to display their registration numbers prominently inside the bus so that commuters could call the police while they are travelling and observe any infractions of the law or are victims of any wrongdoing, rather than having to wait until they get off the bus to get the registration number. In which case the particular bus may be long gone by the time contact is made with the police. In addition, it should also become compulsory for drivers and conductors to have name tags prominently displayed on their persons.
In the longer term, in addition to the above measures, the minibus operations should be brought under the auspices of the Public Utilities Commission and a mandatory code of conduct implemented.
We simply cannot allow the mini-bus operators to continue behaving as a law unto to themselves. If we do not curb this most unwelcome, lawless culture, the effects on our society would become even more perilous.