WESTERN BUREAU:
THE DECISION by the Ministry of Transport to grant discounted fares for public sector workers to travel on Government-owned JUTC buses has not gone over well with civil servants in western Jamaica, who are peeved that they will not benefit from concessionary rates because there is no state-owned public transportation system there.
Effective Sunday, commuters began paying a 25 per cent increase for transportation. However, through the use of prepaid JUTC Smart Cards, public sector workers in the Kingston Metropolitan Region will escape the new fare increases until the end of the memorandum of understanding, which has frozen salaries for the past three years, on March 31, 2006.
SAME MOU
"All of us are bounded by the same MoU, so we are still at a disadvantage because it is more expenses on the same pay," said 23-year-old Hanover resident Olivia Sewell during an interview earlier this week.
"What goes for one should go for all, unless they are going to organise a similar bus system in the west."
In a JUTC release, it was explained that the programme offers rides to public sector workers at the discounted rate of $35 limited to two trips per day, five days per week, totalling 10 trips per week. This gives these workers a value of $500 for 10 trips by paying only $350. The company will absorb the $15 difference on every ride offered under the programme.
The discount offered can only be used with a Smart Card at designated public sector Smart Card locations. Discounts will not be offered on the bus with cash payments.
BIASED
Jamaica Labour Party Deputy Leader and Member of Parliament for North West St. James, Dr. Horace Chang, considers the concessionary fares biased towards the Corporate Area.
"There are some policymakers, even in the Government, that think that Kingston is Jamaica," he commented. "While the majority of public servants might live in Kingston, there are hundreds living in the rest of the country, who are also faced with the devastating increases of bills such as light, water, transportation and back-to-school costs."
According to one senior teacher in Trelawny, the discounted rates should be terminated and have everyone pay increased transportation cost in an effort to remove favouritism. Several members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) also shared the same view.
