The Maruthi Taxi Owners Association, operating in front of Hotel Sun Inn at Ponda, is opposing the compulsory installation of speed governance from September this year. They say that it will fall very costly to them since their business is down.
The taxi drivers say the government should first stop the illegal ferrying and hiring of their customers by unregistered private taxi operators who do not pay any taxes and are eating into their business. They say the government should first stop and punish the illegal operators before making the speed governance compulsory.
The taxi operators also demanded that Government reduce the annual insurance premium on taxis by fifty per cent. If the government fulfills their demand and solves all the problems faced by them then they are ready for speed governance, they said.
The Maruthi Taxi Owners Association President at Ponda, Baban Sawant, said “that for the last three years we are pressing for our demand but nobody support us.”
“Our livelihood is badly affected as the private taxi operators are eating into our business. There are around 100 taxi operators operating in Ponda who are affiliated and registered with the North Goa Tourist Taxi Association.
“When we fix a price of Rs 800 to our customer for hiring a cab, the private taxi operators, who are operating illegally offer them a lower price of Rs 600 for the same trip. In this way, we lose our customers since the customer prefers to save Rs 200 on the trip,” Sawant said.
“Because of this illegal ferrying, many of our taxi owners remain idle and sometimes do not get a single customer for the entire day. The government, instead of forcing the speed governance on us and hiking the commercial and insurance taxes, should conduct an actual spot survey at the tourist places and hotels,” he added.
Sawant alleged that some of hotel operators, private companies and travel agencies also hire illegally private taxis. “We pay around Rs20,000 as annual tax which include road tax, passing and insurance whereas private taxi owners hardly pay around Rs4,000 as an yearly insurance. We saw that during the Defence Expo in Goa around 50 per cent taxis hired were private.
Sandesh Naik of Maruthi Taxi Association said: “The government making it compulsory for us and the commercial vehicles to install speed governance from September this year is a great injustice to us. This speed governance is required for private vehicles that are causing fatal accidents. We are not causing any accidents. We obey all road rules. We oppose the speed governance tooth and nail.”
“Even though accidents are on the rise, taxi operators are never to be blamed for it because our vehicles are not involved. These accidents are caused by rash driving by private vehicles. If the government wants to install, it should also make this rule applicable to all vehicles,” Naik added.Naik said the government should make a survey and check how many taxi operators were involved in fatal accidents. Once that survey is done, the government will realise that most of the accidents are caused by private vehicles and not the registered taxi operators.
Senior Taxi operator Krishna Naik said the North Goa Association has already submitted a memorandum opposing speed governance. According to him, taxi operators depend for their livelihood on customers arriving in Ponda hotels, Industrial Estates, companies and tourist centres but the private taxi operators are affecting their business. “We follow speed limits even on bridges while other traffic vehicles just zoom past without taking care of the road warnings.”
He said not only the taxi operators but also the customers and passengers going to the airport will suffer if speed governance is made compulsory. The bad road conditions and the speed breakers at several places always force the drivers to slow down. The government is implementing the speed governance in a hurry without conducting a proper study of the situation he added.
