HONIARA City Council (HCC) law enforcement officers this week are conducting spot checks on buses that are providing services in the city.
According to the HCC Head of Law Enforcement, Robert Madeo the operation is mainly to check on the business licenses of buses as well as to stop the short bus route from the Central market to destinations like Talise, Didao, Discount at Ranadi, and also the King George School.
He said it is sad to see that some buses continue practicing the short routes and did not buy their business licenses.
This has affected many students who usually travel by buses to their respective schools, Madeo added.
However, the current short bus routes have raised a lot of criticisms by commuters especially students and working-class people. Most have complained that HCC today is not doing much to stop the illegal short bus routes.
This paper understands that in 2018, HCC under the leadership of Andrew Mua as City Mayor passed an ordinance to regulate and control public bus services in the city.
This came after HCC received a lot of criticism from bus owners, conductors, and drivers on its re-introduced long bus routes.
The then City Mayor Mr. Mua said the ordinance covers every issue relating to bus operations.
With the slow response by the HCC under Mayor Wilson Mamae, people have raised serious concerns if whether his leadership will still impose the tough penalties on the buses or not.
By FOLLET JOHN
Newsroom, Honiara
