Sri Lanka Railways Forum

The All Ceylon Railway Employees General Union (ACREGU) has requested the Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) to stop charging train commuters a fee for using the public toilets at the Fort Railway Station.

Prior to this decision by the SLR a private company was put in charge of the toilets at the Fort Railway Station and was charging Rs.5 from every passenger who wanted to use the toilets.

Speaking to The Morning Leader General Secretary, ACREGU, Sumathipala Manawadu said the services of this private company was terminated two weeks ago and since then the SLR has continued to charge Rs. 5 per person for using the toilets at the Fort Railway Station.

“The toilets at the Fort Railway Station are solely for train commuters. If a train commuter pays for a platform ticket or a train ticket he has every right to use the toilets at the Fort Railway Station without paying a fee. It is very unreasonable on the part of the SLR to charge a fee from passengers using the train service especially after train fares were increased recently. There are many people who travel in the night by train. There are others who arrive at the Fort Railway Station in the night. When travelling long distances it is natural for train commuters to want to use the toilets,” Manawadu said.

He went on to say that if the government could spend so much money to build rest rooms at the railway station for passengers travelling by train why can’t they think of the passengers’ welfare and not charge them for using the toilets.

He added that due to the fare charged for using the toilets at the railway station some passengers were not using this facility while others relieved themselves elsewhere.

“When Petroleum Minister A.H.M. Fowzie was the transport minister he had entrusted the maintenance of the toilets at the Fort Railway Station to a private company. This private company while charging Rs. 5 each from train commuters who used the toilets was paying the SLR Rs. 20,000 per month,” Manawadu said.

General Manager SLR Dr. Lalithasiri Gunaruwan was not available for comment.

By Risidra Mendis
Source: morning Leader

                            

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 4:06 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.