1. Medan: 12 x 4 lines
1. Medan: 12 x 4 lines New fares introduced following driver protest
Mayor Abdillah of Medan, the North Sumatra capital, introduced new fares for public minivans on Thursday following a protest by hundreds of minivan drivers grouped under the Association of Medan Public Minivan Drivers/Owners (Kesper) earlier in the morning.
With the mayor's ruling, drivers can now charge Rp 1,100 (12 US cents) per passenger per route, up from the previous Rp 900. Meanwhile, the special fare for students remains unchanged at Rp 500 per passenger per route.
The new fares were announced by Medan's Administration Affairs Assistant Aslan Harahap to a delegation of protesting Kesper drivers at the municipality office.
The drivers' protest, which began at 7:30 a.m., left thousands of office employees and students stranded between Jl. Jamin Ginting and Jl. Pancing in Medan.
2. PLN: 18 x 2 lines NGOs set up posts, plan to sue PLN
A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), concerned about the poor service provided by the State Electricity Company (PLN) here, started the operation on Thursday of monitoring and complaint posts for consumers suffering from regular electricity blackouts imposed by the company.
They decided to set up the posts following complaints by consumers that many of their electrical and electronic appliances had been damaged by the power outages.
"The operation of these posts at several places here is part of our preliminary action before we file a class action suit against PLN. We can no longer wait for the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation (YLKI) to follow up on the consumers' complaints," said Aryanto, an activist with the Center for the Study of Government Strategy and Policy (Pussbik).
3. Suap: 10 x 3 lines Gambler accused of bribery A man believed to be an agent of an illegal gambling operator has attempted to bribe an anti-drug abuse activist.
"The man who claimed to be a close friend of Alfian Tjahjono contacted me through a friend of mine and offered me Rp 250 million to stop me talking about the activities of the gambling financier," Singky Suwadji said on Thursday.
Police recently nabbed Alfian Tjahjono who is believed to be an operator of big gambling activities at his house on Jl. Dharmahusada Timur in Surabaya, Antara reported.