• Close to 150 private buses had been utilised for the meeting held at Nugegoda a few months ago

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama

While commenting on the money currently being spent on providing private buses to transport people to political campaigns, the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) yesterday said the highest number of buses were hired by the National People’s Power (NPP) party, which intends to contest the upcoming election under the compass symbol.

Addressing the media LPBOA Chairman Gemunu Wijeratne said nearly 150 private buses had been utilised for the meeting held at Nugegoda a few months ago. “We do not have limitations on providing any number of buses for any political party to continue with their local government election campaigns, but only for cash,” he said.

“These days, the income of a majority of private bus owners is good due to their buses being used to transport people to public meetings targeting the local government election,” he added.

Private buses are getting their payments, but the parties are not revealing how they get their funds for their election campaigns. To travel at least 50 kilometres, a single private bus costs a minimum of Rs. 30,000, he added. However, he explained these politicians bring people to their political meetings while spending money for buses to run up to 300 kilometres.  With the current economic situation in the country, the LPBOA chairman questioned how politicians were able to raise such large sums of money for their election campaigns.
Therefore, he requested the political parties to let the youth come to power through politics.