‘DRIVERS WILL PAY FOR DAMAGES TO GOVERNMENT PROPERTIES’

Government has warned all drivers that they would now start paying for state property damaged by the vehicles they were driving. These properties include bus shelters, street signs, road curbs, guard rails and drivers would now be taken to task. Minister for Local Government, Housing, Environment, Infrastructure and Transport Parveen Bala has called on the public to identify drivers and people who damaged these properties. Mr Bala said Government was spending thousands of dollars annually to repair these properties after they were damaged by vehicles “From now they will be asked to pay for the damages,” Mr Bala said. “What we have observed is that people have been damaging these properties with no sense of pride and gone off without worrying who will pay for the repair. “Government has always been paying for the repairs, but that has stopped now and those who cause these damages will pay. “We are going to start making these people pay, because there are many properties that have been damaged.” Mr Bala said some of these properties include new bus shelters where trucks and buses have bumped into them and driven off. “In Labasa a few months ago a truck went off the road and damaged a bus stop and got away with it. “How long is Government going to keep spending money on repairing these properties? “We are asking the public to help us identify those perpetrators so that we can take them to task. “As such we are asking all drivers to be careful, because if you damage these properties from now, you pay for the repair.”