11-year-old walks 17 km for want of bus fare
A 11-year- old boy walked more than 16 km, after the conductor, who also was the owner of the bus, offloaded him, as he did not have the required fare to go home in Ganetenne, Mawanella.
As usual, after school, Madushanka Wijekoon, a student of Waripola Sri Sumangala College, Kandy, came to the bus terminus near the railway goodshed and boarded a Kandy-kegalle bus. The bus commenced its journey, and near the Kandy Hospital bus halt, the conductor- cum owner of the bus started collecting the fares. Madushanka, on trying to get the fare from his bag, realized that his money was missing. When the conductor approached him for the fare, Madushanka told the conductor that his money was missing and that he would pay the Rs. 17 fare when he reached Ganetenna, as he was known there as the son of an Army personnel.
“I promised to give him the money when I got off, as I could have asked somebody known in my village for the money, but the conductor did not agree to that,” he said.
Madushanka recalls how he was bodily pulled out from the bus and dumped on the road, and with none of the passengers offering any assistance, he had no alternative but to walk from the Kandy hospital bus stand to Ganetenna, a distance of nearly 17 km.
“On reaching Polgahamulla, after passing Peradeniya Junction, I drank a glass of water from a wayside boutique as I was tired, and then continued with my journey,” Madushanka said.
As Madushanka was trudging home, his mother Kumari became very worried, as her son was long overdue, normally coming home at the usual time of 4.30 p.m.on making inquiries, a student close to their home had told Kumari that he saw someone like Madushanka coming down Pahale Kadugannawa, where the wayside fruit stalls are located.
Kumari immediately told her elder son Roshan to go by bus and see whether it was Madushanka. When the bus taking Roshan was climbing the steep incline, he saw Madushanka walking down the incline. He stopped the bus, alighted and when he accosted Madushanka, he started to cry.
Kumari said that Madushanka is not in the habit of asking for money even at home, which would have prevented him from asking for money from any stranger.
The father, Ratna Wijekoon, attached to the Army Camp at Pallekelle, said that, such was the discipline he had instilled in his children that, perhaps Madushanka decided to walk, rather than ask for money, even for his bus fare.
The National Transport Commission (NTC), which inquired into the incident, found that the bus owner had illegally sold his route permit for Rs 3.8 million and was illicitly operating this bus.
NTC Chairman Roshan Gunawardena told the Sunday Times that the owner of the bus had his route permit cancelled, to serve as a deterrent to other bus crews who ill-treat passengers.