The Nuwara Eliya District Transport Service Authority office manager and officers in charge of the Hatton and Nuwara Eliya bus stations have been recommended to be transferred.
This is after the discovery of a a bus running between Hatton and Nuwara Eliya for about six years without obtaining a passenger transport licence. The committee appointed to conduct an investigation into the matter, have recommended that the Manager of the Nuwara Eliya District Transport Service Authority office, subject officers and officers-in-charge of the Hatton and Nuwara Eliya bus stations, be transferred and that further disciplinary and legal action should be taken against them.
A committee headed by Central Province Cooperative Development Commissioner Amila Navaratne was appointed by Central Province Governor Lalith U. Gamage about a month ago to investigate this. Provincial Sports Director S.M.C. Samarakoon was a committee member.
The committee has said that the officers-in-charge of Hatton and Nuwara Eliya bus stations and road inspectors are responsible for not checking and reporting the bus in question which had been running on the Nuwara Eliya-Hatton route for many years.
The committee has decided that the Acting Deputy General Manager (Operations) of the Transport Service Authority’s main office as well as the officer-in-charge of Nuwara Eliya District Management M. Basnayake and officials of the Nuwara Eliya District Office are responsible for not obtaining correct reports and engaging in monitoring.
The committee has also recommended that the loss incurred to the transport authority for operating a bus without obtaining a passenger transport licence for nearly six years and not obtaining log sheets should be calculated and charged from the relevant officials.
Asela Kuruluwansa