------------
Sittwe: Over 400 students from the Technical University in Sittwe in western Burma's Arakan State have staged a demonstration against the hike in school transportation fares by walking in a procession in the streets on Wednesday.
"We started the march from our university at 1 pm to the general administration office downtown to protest the hike in fares for our school transportation," said the student.
She added that there were disturbances and attempts by authorities to block the students on their march to the office, but no student was arrested.
"There were disturbances by the police and intelligence officials on our way marching to the office, but no student was arrested. We arrived in front of the office around 2 pm and the state's chief minister and responsible officials, including our university principal, came to us to discuss the matter, and they promised to reduce the car fares to 100 Kyat from 200 kyat," she said.
The source said that students withdrew their protest at 4 pm after authorities promised to get the car fares reduced to the previous rate of 100 Kyat.
Another students said they will continue their protest if the authorities' promises are not met.
"We will continue our protest if the care fare is not reduced to 100 Kyat from 200 kyat, as being promised by the authorities," he said.
According to the students, mini vehicles such as three wheelers and cars are running routes between the university and downtown Sittwe for school transportation using fuels provided by the government at below market costs. They have staged the protest because the drivers increased the fares up to 400 Kyat.
Similar protests were carried out occasionally during 2009 and 2010 by university students in Sittwe whenever their school transportation fees were increased.
0 comments