TNAG-1074-FCO40-1324-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1981 — Page 7

XCC(81)28

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13 Bearing in mind that some subsidiary legislation may be required and that the scheme envisages the issue of about 600,000 student travel cards every September, it is proposed that the scheme should come into effect in September 1981. This would allow time for these recommendations, if approved in principle by the Council, to be developed further and submitted to Finance Committee for the voting of the necessary funds, There should also then be sufficient time for:

(i)

so dentr

sneziqeu "(ii)

al si

(iii)

Student Travel Cards, application forms and information leaflets to be printed;

SI01 For

'adi buasiranoo el s. 9V9W0 application forms and blank cards to be distributed to schools and other educational institutions to be filled out and subsequently returned to the Transport Depart- ment for validation and the lamination of the cards; and

Udus

Student Travel Cards to be issued by the Transport Department.

180

It is estimated that a minimum of six weeks is required to implement the scheme once funds have been voted by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. The operators themselves have indicated their preference for a similar lead time to enable them suitably to adapt their operations to the needs of the scheme.

JPON 12

Interim Arrangements

14

1

Operators which are not included in the existing scheme, notably HYF Co., NLB Co., and MTRC have been pressing the Government to allow them to join the scheme. If Council approves the

new scheme and the implementation date of September 1981, it is proposed that, to show equity of treatment, any operator not included within the current student subsidy arrangements may be permitted to share them as soon as possible, if approved by members, after Finance Committee of the Legislative Council has voted the funds, provided that the operator issues its own student cards for the period up to end of the present academic year, bears the administrative costs of the scheme and can produce satisfactory accounts justifying the amount of payment sought. Passes issued by other operators wishing to join the present scheme would be restricted to travel between home and school on Mondays to Saturdays only, (excluding Sundays, Public Holidays and the Summer Holidays) and to certain hours of the day (i,e. normally from 7 a. m, to 7 p.m.) to ensure their conformity to the arrangements already in operation in respect of KMB, CMB and HKT,

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do

CONFIDENTIAL