MINIBUSES plying Route 44 on the East Coast Demerara are facing resentment from passengers who claim that they have been unscrupulous in overcharging.Passengers have no other choice but to pay through their noses in order to hang on to their jobs.
Passengers always get the nasty end of the shaft since government cannot provide transportation for its citizens. Recently, the minibus operators have been demanding an increase of $80 more than the normal fare from passengers travelling the Melanie/Victoria route.
$80 more on a bus fare is a lot of money for many passengers and this is bound to make the poor get poorer.
Even school children are not exempted from this sudden hike in fares, posing a worrying situation, which the authorities have not been able to address so far.
As far as I am concerned school kids should be travelling free of cost.
The government should be spending money on providing transportation for all school kids and all seniors.
Meanwhile, these minibus operators who are overcharging still overload the vehicles to the discomfort and danger of passengers, who do not have a voice because if they speak up they are put out of the buses.
A call to the Police Traffic Department said that passengers should report the matter to any police station, providing the minibus licence number and they will deal with the matter.
Why should passengers have to call the police to report overloading and speeding of minibuses?
The traffic cops are in on this thing to make their already fat bankrolls fatter by the day.
NAME WITHHELD