“Metro” buses are operated illegally without any legal basis, says Gemunu Wijeratne, Chairman of the Lanka Private Bus Owners Association.
Speaking to the media, he said that these buses are even allowed to transport passengers standing, and that no general law applies to these buses.
Citing official data obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI), he said that the Metro Bus Company is not a separate private company.
The chairman said that he challenges the authorities to publicly declare the daily income earned by the relevant buses, and added that his association will make a written inquiry on this in the future.
He further commented,
“ Metro buses are being brought in and run illegally. Then there are no laws for metro buses. They are standing on the bus. Then we challenge you to accept this challenge if possible. Make the daily income of a bus public. We will make a written notification stating how much daily income there is from this. Metro is not something else. This is 60% of the General Treasury and 40% of the SLTB. It is the SLTB itself that is implementing this by falsely claiming to be a metro company.”