The grandmother who lived in the village was forced to fend for herself: medicines were needed, but the bus routes were taken and canceled.

Such a situation was shared with Delfi by a Vilnius resident whose grandmother lives in the village of Pašiaušė, Kelmė district. According to the granddaughter, three buses to Kelmė, Šiauliai and Tytuvėnai traveled from this town to restrictions.

“Unfortunately, all the buses are now canceled and no one has warned they will be leaving. As I understand it, this was done for pandemic management. The problem is that my grandmother lives there alone and does not have a driver’s license. She needs prescription drugs. , but he has no way to get to the pharmacy because there are no more buses ”.

According to her, according to current regulations, neither she nor her mother can go to buy her medicine.

“I wonder how many of these elderly people are left without access to medicines, without the opportunity to go to the doctor or buy more normal food than what the local rural store has,” he asked.

The buses ran empty

Delfi contacted the director of Kelmė Bus Park Arūnas Butkus, who confirmed that in fact the buses no longer run on the aforementioned routes.

“This was the district of Kelmė. An order from the managing director, and we’re just executors. This procedure is valid until January 3. Of course, it doesn’t suit us either, because we want to work. “

Kelme d. Stasys Jokubauskas, Director of Administration, explained why that decision was made.

“Actually, that decision was made because movement is restricted and a person can leave their place of residence only in an emergency. Let’s say buses just don’t make sense if people can no longer move and the buses continue to run. This means that the municipality has to pay for the trip, even if there are no passengers. “

According to him, it is expensive for the municipality and, in fact, people cannot travel.

“If there is an exception that a person needs to see a doctor or somewhere else, there are some restrictions again, but the bus doesn’t really meet the needs of the individual resident. At the same time, it makes sense to operate buses from where people can’t get out. “

S. Jokubauskas pointed out that upon arrival, there will still be a police officer who will review the purpose for which the person is driving and then he will be returned, so he does not see the point of such a trip.

“There is no movement, because for a time the buses continued to circulate, but they drove rich. The drivers were driving alone, but someone had to pay for it. If there is no downtime, the company has big losses, the municipality has to cover them and the resident still cannot use the service ”.

True, he agreed that there may be exceptional and isolated cases, but, in the opinion of the managing director, if it is only necessary to drive ten kilometers once, then it is not worth sending the bus twenty times again.