Cheating bus companies to face stiffer penalties
Cheating bus companies to face stiffer penalties
JAKARTA (JP): The government will increase the punishment
imposed on bus companies' owners and their crews who continue to
increase ticket prices for the Idul Fitri holiday makers, an
official has said.
The head of the Jakarta chapter of the transportation
ministry, A. Karim Tjokroprawiro, said yesterday he believed that
current punishment is considered too light by the bus companies.
The operation permit of a bus company found guilty of
increasing ticket prices is currently revoked for between one
month and one year.
'Violation takes place every year despite the punishment. The
only way to deal with this problem is to impose more severe
punishments on them (the companies and the crew),"
Karim said. "Temporary revocation of their operation permit may
not be enough."
Karim refused to explain what punishments the government will
give to unscrupulous bus company owners and crew. But he said the
drivers will also be punished for such offenses. "Their driver's
licenses may be revoked as well".
Meanwhile, the head of the city land traffic control agency,
JP Sepang, said yesterday that the crew members of three buses of
the same company have been found arbitrarily increasing ticket
prices.
The crew of the buses belonging to the Dewi Sri transportation
company had increased fares from Rp 8,000 (US$3.72) to Rp 12,000
per person for the Jakarta to Slawi, Central Java, route.
"We seized the certificates of road worthiness of those
buses," he said.
Sepang said he wondered how the bus crew could increase the
fares while the control at bus terminal counters is very tight.
The governor
In a related development, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja ordered
the agency to make sure that all passengers pay their fare before
they get on the bus.
Surjadi, who visited bus and railways terminals, Tanjung Priok
port and Jatinegara market yesterday, found that passengers of
Kramat Jati buses from the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal,
traveling from Jakarta to Bandung, were told by the bus crew to
get on the bus without tickets.
"It's not right because the passengers will be forced to pay
more than they should for the tickets on the way, or the bus crew
will order them to get off," he said.
He said the administration has too few employees to be put in
all buses. The only way to curb such foul play is by forcing the
crews to ask the passengers for the fares before the bus leaves,
he added.
More than 196,000 people have left Jakarta from 25 bus
terminals in the last two days. A total of 158,653 people left
from the four main terminals: Pulogadung, Lebak Bulus, Kampung
Rambutan and Kalideres, and the other 37,614 left from additional
terminals.
The head of Senen railway station, Bey Arief, said the number
of passengers who have left for West, Central and East Java in
the last two days is 20,364 people an increase from 19,681 in the
same period last year.
Arief said that the increase is caused by a policy to use
three other stations, Jatinegara, Manggarai and Bekasi, as
departure centers.
"People are not flocking in this station because they can also
depart from other stations," he said. (yns)