Opposition Leader, Sitiveni Rabuka says Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama and Attorney General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum should explain to the nation the delay in transferring funds for the Student Transport Subsidy Scheme to the Ministry of Education.
Rabuka says it is unacceptable that students are not able to attend school because the Ministry of Education could not top up cards in time before the start of the school.
Rabuka says the ongoing failure of the e-ticketing system touted as part of modernizing Fiji just shows the continuing incompetence of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet in forcing a system where cash is prohibited, and buses are not transporting students whose cards do not work.
He says no other country in the world has a purely electronic ticketing system. Rabuka says students cannot pay their fare in cash because bus drivers will be fined up to $500 for accepting cash payments.
Rabuka says the Minister for Transport and Land Transport Authority should urgently look into the situation as students are missing out on important school days.
He further adds that the bus operators should record their losses from transporting students whose cards have zero balance, and work out with the Ministry of Education a way to be compensated for these runs.
The Opposition Leader says the Government, Vodafone Fiji and Bus Operators should get their act together to solve the disaster.
Rabuka adds that he has noticed less people travelling in the buses and people are using taxis or minibuses to avoid the hassle and the bus industry is suffering as a result.
Furthermore, Rabuka says after carrying out meaningful public and stakeholder consultations, a SODELPA Government would provide for a dual system with a discount as incentives for the travelling public to make the switch to the e-card.
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