News
Photo focus: Transport woes and employee fitness
Employees and even students risk life and limb as they use the woefully inadequate fleet of public transport vehicles
Today a majority of both state and private sector employees use public transport to and from work.
Unfortunately the public transport system is haphazardly operated. Riddled with an inadequate fleet of vehicles in both the rail and bus services, they seldom operate to timetable often subjecting commuters to inordinate delay.
Resultantly employees can be seen sprinting from train stations and bus halts in a desperate attempt to get to their work stations in time.
Employees say that they are forced to get into crowded trains and buses and sometimes travel on footboards risking their lives in order to get to work in time.
‘It is a daily struggle to get to work as the bus and train services are disorganized at times. We have to run to our offices from the bus or train stops at times. If we are late we have to apply for leave or face pay cuts’, says Suneetha Dharmapala, a public sector employee from Kalutara.
She said that there are many of her colleagues who have been injured on their way to office.
Yet It was only recently, the Sports Ministry introduced a programme for public sector employees to engage in physical fitness programmes before starting a days work.
The race to catch transport back home
The packed buses provide no comfort after a hard days work
The end of a tiring day.. employees wend their way to train and bus stations
Got to get to the office in time! Employees sprint to beat the red line