Mayor Orders For A Reduction In Bus Fares
Aweil Town Mayor has issued a municipal decree to the drivers union in the state to reduce the bus fares from Aweil town to various destinations in the state with immediate effect. 24 April 2013 Buses parked at Ayuang Bus Park in Aweil. [Abraham Agoth] By Abraham Agoth AWEIL, 23 April 2013 [Gurtong]-Mayor, Hon. Atak Debek has issued municipal decree after a consultative meeting with drivers union and commerce of supply representatives in the state. Debek said that he does not see a reason why the fares are still expensive regardless of enough available stock of fuel and more vehicles coming in. “I don’t see any reason behind to why the drivers and the union are still charging bus fares highly despite reduction on fuel prices in the market and despite the availability of enough stock of fuel in the stores of traders’ and government stores as well. We must learn how to compare and double check our profit-making business and the economic situation of the country especially the limited resources the government operates on especially during the austerity measures,” he said. “We should learn how to remove our specks and other people’s specks when there is citizenship and nationhood as kinds of building stronger South Sudan. When you charge highly and you know very well that the same buses are the ones being used by the local community who do not have any monthly salaries on any resources they depend on, then we are damaging them unknowingly,” he added. He says that since 17 litres of fuel used to cost 200 SSP but now costs 100, and then the decision of reduction would have been automatic as the reduction of bus fares was made approximately at 5-10% of the total bus fare cost for each destination. For instance, he says from Aweil town to Wanyjok used to be 15 SSP per a person but reduced to10 SSP, Aweil to Maek-alel used to cost 15 SSP but now is 10 SSP with Nyamlel being 35 SSP but now should be 30 SSP and Aroyo used to be 40 SSP but now goes back to 25 and among others. Furthermore, Debek adds that his office is working in conjunction with security organs to ensure that these orders are executed without failure. Meanwhile, Dhel Mawien Dhel, a union’s deputy chairperson of finance says that decision of bus fares was made by the union based on the technical aspects of the roads, prices of spare parts and the fluctuation of fuel prices in the market. “We did not just come together and say that we want to keep the prices constant so that we make profit from the passengers but that was a technical implications to have calculated the prices incurred in bus maintenance and roads conditions with prices shooting up in local markets. We are forced to keep prices constant because we cannot afford buying spare parts here in local markets if reused our previous prices. This will be an absolute loss,” he said. Mawien further challenges the town mayor to reconsider his decision of asking the bus fares reduced without making a market survey to find out whether the prices for consumable and non-consumable goods are reasonable or not. Posted in: Home, Governance, Travel -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
