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Malta:
Elderly urged to report drivers who overcharge
Malta - The
government has advised the elderly to report any bus drivers who charge
higher rates than those established by law. A report may
be lodged with the police or the Malta Transport Authority. Bus owners
will today start new industrial action over their claim for higher
subsidies and other issues. They have been directed by their association
to suspend the discounted rates which retirees enjoy on bus travel. It will mean
that instead of paying a flat 10-cent rate, elderly people will have to
buy tickets at the normal rate of between 15 and 20 cents, depending on
the zone of travel. Bus owners'
association president Victor Spiteri yesterday confirmed the directive was
still in place and that there had been no positive developments in their
dispute with the authorities. However, the
government has pledged legal action against drivers who overcharge the
elderly. Yesterday it said immediate action would be taken against
reported drivers. Transport
authority officials will also be carrying out spot checks on the buses to
ensure that the law is not broken. Transport
Minister Censu has described the bus owners' action as illegal, saying the
fares were established by law. The president
of the national association of pensioners, Joseph Scicluna, yesterday had
harsh words for the industrial action. "Does it
make sense to target the most vulnerable sector in society," he
asked. He said many
pensioners had called to complain. "For certain categories of
pensioner, charging them 15 or 20 cents instead of 10 cents will mean a
lot. A lot of old people catch two buses to reach a destination and then
catch another two to return. This will mean an increase of 20 to 40 cents
each time they decide to go out. For example, I know pensioners who like
visiting the Malta Trade Fair, in Naxxar. "This is
an extra burden on the weakest category in society. We really would like
to make a strong appeal to the bus owners' association to reflect on the
issue. "I want
to stress that our council would like to deplore the fact that the measure
has been directed against pensioners and elderly people." The
parliamentary secretary responsible for the elderly, Francis Agius,
appealed to the association to withdraw its directive with immediate
effect. "The action will prove to be very painful to the weakest
category of our society, who deserve far better treatment from
everyone." Dr Agius
explained that the elderly pass was an important social measure to help
the elderly remain active and integrate in society. "The action taken
is not only unjustifiable but lacks any social considerations," he
said. In a press
conference on Monday, Mr Spiteri had said that if the pending issues are
not resolved, bus owners would take harsher action. The dispute is
over the subsidies for the purchase of new buses, the annual subsidies
received by the bus owners for their operations and the introduction of
bus ticketing machines, which the bus owners fear will introduce the risk
of fraud. In the press
conference, Mr Spiteri denied that the association had asked for a Lm2.5
million subsidy for this year, as claimed by the Transport Authority. He
said the association was asking for subsidies of around Lm1.2 million. But the
transport minister yesterday published a letter sent to him by Mr Spiteri
last February in which the association made a claim for a Lm2.51 million
increase in subsidies in relation to a loss of Lm4,932 which every bus, it
claimed, was making at the time. The transport
ministry also said the transport authority last week wrote to the bus
owners' association inviting it to take an active part in an exercise
aimed at creating an "adequate" public transport service. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
