By Dilanthi Jayamanne

The Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration yesterday said that it had issued instructions to the Police to take legal action against bus operators who failed to display the destination boards in Sinhala and Tamil.

Media Secretary to the Minister, Mahendra Harishchandra, said that the Ministry had repeatedly instructed the Private Bus Operators’ Association, Passenger Transport Authority and the Sri Lanka Transport Board to instruct all bus operators including the SLTB to use both languages to indicate the starting point of the journey and the destinations in the two languages.

Harischandra said that bus operators had apparently not paid much attention to the instructions which had been given thrice. As a result, only some buses had taken measures to use both languages. It was important to utilise the two local languages, Sinhala and Tamil, for the social integration process, he added.

Bus operators could be fined or given a six-month jail sentence for not displaying destination boards in Sinhala and Tamil.

The SLTB, when contacted, said they had received directions to use trilingual name boards. However, the Board had been given a grace period owing to the lengthy process to implement the instructions.

The PBOA, PTA nor the Police Spokesman were available for comment at the time of going to press. Courtesy: The Island