From our Galle Corr.
The operation of the private intercity express bus service between Galle and Colombo has been suspended by the Private Intercity Bus Owners' Association from Friday morning. They are demanding, among other things, 10 percent fare increase.

The present fare is fifty rupees one way.

A. G. de Silva, a Joint Secretary of the Owners' Association said that considering the present overheads, they could not continue on the present fare.

Unless they could operate profitably, the owners saw no purpose in maintaining the service. They needed at least a ten percent increase in the fare to make the service more meaningful from their stand point, Mr. de Silva said.

Enumerating a number of other grievances, he said at present only three passengers are allowed to travel standing.

Another demand of theirs was that the rule should be relaxed to enable them to take more passengers who were willing to travel standing. They also demand they should be permitted to pick passengers at halts where the buses could stop. That was not permitted at present and in instances where they had picked passengers at such halts heavy fines had been imposed.

Unless these grievances were looked into and solutions were found, they were not prepared to resume the service, Mr. de Silva asserted.

A large number of commuters have been affected as a result of the suspension of the service.

Transport Minister of the Western Provincial Council I. Wijewantha was not available for comment.

Negombo: A sergeant and a constable, attached to the Katu-nayake Police were produced on Friday before Negombo Acting Magistrate Alfred Silva on a Police complaint of grabbing a carton of cigarettes from a gem trader. They were remanded till July 6.

OIC Katunayake Police, who produced the two policemen Sgt. R. Sriyaratne and Constable J. A. S. K. Jayasinghe, told court they were arrested on a complaint made to SSP Negombo by the gem dealer Ravindra Samaranayake of Kollupitiya.

Samaranayake's complaint was that when he was leaving the airport in a car with a friend, they were stopped by the two suspects outside the airport.

After searching the car, the policemen had told the gem merchant and his friend, they had to he taken to the police station for further interrogation. Later they took a carton of Benson and Hedges cigarettes worth Rs. 438 which was in Samaranayake's possession and went away.

The two policemen had been identified later by the complainant and his friend at a parade.

Dearaniyagala: Rubber tapping on several estates had come to a standstill due to the heavy rains.

Planters as a result complained of a heavy financial loss.

Even the rubber tappers income has been affected by the situation.

In many rubber smallholdings no sundry work is offered to the tappers. But however in company managed estates sundry work is offered, which the tappers say is less income when compared to rubber tapping.

The rains have continued and even the Kelani Ganga is swelling thus threatening the low lying areas with floods.

Kandy: Eight groups including the Peoples Alliance (PA) and the United National Party (UNP) tendered nominations to contest the forthcoming Central Provincial Council Elections, yesterday at the Kandy District Secretariat.

Nominations were received by the Returning Officer D. M. Nandisena and Kandy Assistant Commissioner of Elections W. D. P. Wickremasinghe.

The ninth list of nominations of the Up-country Peoples Front was rejected by the officials - reason being the difference of name of the General Secretary of the party.