Private bus services in Sri Lanka to halt for fuel crisis

The private bus services in Sri Lanka will be stopped from the next week as no measures were taken so far to provide the buses with adequate fuel.

The Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) decided to withdraw services from Monday, reports Ceylon Today.

Chairman of the association Gemunu Wijeratne said that buses operated thus far to avoid inconveniencing students sitting for the GCE Ordinary Level examination.

However, bus services will be withdrawn next week if the fuel crisis is not resolved by then.

Wijeratne alleged that despite several rounds of discussions with the relevant authorities regarding the said crisis, no solutions have been proposed yet.

Sri Lanka, the island nation is grappling with an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948.

It is struggling with a shortage of almost all essentials, due to the lack of dollars to pay for the imports.

A crippling shortage of foreign reserves has led to long queues for fuel, cooking gas and other essentials while power cuts and soaring food prices heaped misery on the people.

The economic crisis has also triggered a political crisis in Sri Lanka and a demand for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The crisis has already forced Mahinda Rajapaksa to step down from the position of prime minister, the elder brother of the president, on May 9.

An inflation rate spiralling towards 40 percent, shortages of food, fuel and medicines and rolling power blackouts have led to nationwide protests and a plunging currency, with the government short of the foreign currency reserves it needed to pay for imports.