Security guards for holiday makers

Security guards for holiday makers

JAKARTA (JP): The government will deploy 300 security personnel to ensure safety and to keep order during the upcoming Idul Fitri holiday next week.

"The task force functions to protect the public from train accidents, crime and ticket scalpers' misdemeanors," the director for land and communications, Soejono, told reporters yesterday.

The security personnel comprising 110 members of the Jakarta area military, 100 military police and 110 neighborhood security officers and volunteer scouts will be deployed at various train stations throughout Jakarta.

When asked about violations by bus operators who increase bus ticket prices beyond the 25 percent limit, Soejono said that the government will take firm action against them.

"We'll either reprimand them or invalidate their operating permits," Soejono told reporters.

Last year, some 80 individual buses from 50 bus companies were in violation of the regulation, he added.

Soejono urged the public to report this kind of violation by writing to his office enclosing a copy of the bus ticket or by reporting to security personnel at the site of the violation.

To enhance its services, the state-owned railway company PJKA has been offering a 15 percent discount in train fares for those traveling between Feb. 6 through Feb. 12 and Feb. 29 through Mar. 16, PJKA spokesman Bambang Walujodjati told The Jakarta Post.

A discount of 10 percent is offered to those traveling beginning today through Feb. 15 and between Feb. 26 and Feb. 28, he added.