Bus owners ignore PLO’s instruction

Bus owners evidently ignored the instruction of the Private Regular Service Bus Owners’ Organization (PLO) and decided to get reregistered. “I am content with the turnout on the first day of the re-registration and I am glad that the bus owners did not let the PLO influence their decision,” said Joyce Blokland, director at the Transport Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communication.

The PLO which is led by John Mahadewsingh had instructed its members not to comply with the Transport Directorate’s call to report for re-registration because there had already been a re-registration the previous month. The PLO deemed this month’s re-registration unnecessary. Blokland pointed out that all the bus owners who have buses on route 1 to 5 showed up on Monday. The Transport Directorate and the PLO on Monday had a meeting to discuss the introduction of 3 new routes. Before the meeting started the director had made it clear that if there were going to be questions about the re-registration, the meeting would be adjourned at once. The Transport Directorate last week explained that the new re-registration was necessary to check if there were still bus owners driving around with fake bus permits. The director made it clear that an investigation brought to light that several bus owners had a fake bus permit in order to get fuel subsidy from the government. The announcement reportedly infuriated the PLO.

Blokland explained that bus owners who fail to comply will lose their bus permit. The bus owners evidently got the message loud and clear because all of them opted to get re-registered on Monday.