IPOH, The absence of bus services around Bidor for the past few months has seen a drop in attendance of students at schools here due to the difficulty for them to attend classes.
President of the Parents-Teachers Association of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Syeikh Abdul Ghani and SK Kampong Poh, Ahmad Fadyil Abdul Maulud said most of the students in the area depended on bus transport to attend school from the very outset.
“Since the Hup Yik bus service stopped, the percentage in attendance of students has been deplorable so we hope the state government will urgently help restore public transport for the surrounding community.
“For Orang Asli students, there is no problem because the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) has prepared a special van to pick them up and send them to school.
“However, it is a problem for other students, most of whom are not well off, to use rental cars or e-hailing services every day, even working parents have time constraints to drop off and pick up their children after school,” he told Bernama.
Ahmad Fadyil said he was informed that the bus company had to stop operations because it could not afford the maintenance costs due to the lack of passengers.
Meanwhile, Perak Infrastructure, Energy, Water and Public Transport Committee chairman Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, when contacted, said the state government is sorting out the problem with related parties.
“We are working with Perak Transit and the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD) to restore the Tapah-Sungkai route bus service using the Bas Perak Sejahtera service with a nominal payment of RM1.
“We will make an announcement on this if APAD agrees,” he said.
He said a temporary bus service is also being worked on for the convenience of the residents and students, which is currently in the process of awaiting approval from APAD.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency