Team Herald
MARGAO: Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao in the presence of two Congress MLAs threatened to organise Goa bandh and urged taxi drivers to come on the streets if the App based GoaMiles taxi service is not withdrawn from the coastal or tourist belt.
Addressing a large number of taxi drivers from across Goa at Colva, what was promoted as a press conference, he asserted that the taxi rates in Goa are quite reasonable and said that if the government feels that taxi drivers charge exorbitantly then GoaMiles should be allowed to operate only in the cities.
“The coastal belt has only tourists as the clients and hence GoaMiles should not be allowed to operate there and be only permitted to drop their clients from the cities to the beaches,” he said while pointing out that there is no provision to provide any parking place for these taxis.
While pointing out that a few months back the Centre had issued a security alert to Goa he wondered how in such circumstances unknown migrants can be allowed to drive the GoaMiles taxis and wondered what will happen if the Sri Lanka blast incident is repeated in Goa.
He alleged that GoaMiles is owned by two wealthy Goans who have purchased the taxis in the names of some other Goans and added that Nikhil Dessai, the managing director of Goa Tourism Development Corporation Limited (GTDC) was promoting GoaMiles for selfish and ulterior motives.
“We demand stringent action against Nikhil as during the Code of Conduct he asked a clerk from GTDC to write a letter to the manager of the Colva Residency to allow 15 GoaMiles taxis to be parked in their compound even though there is no provision to provide parking stand for these taxis,” he said.
He said the government has failed to protect the interest of the Goans and added that the livelihood of 200 taxi owners from Colva will be endangered if GoaMiles is allowed to operate there and further said he was willing to resign as MLA and dared Vijai Sardesai who talks about Goem, Goenkar and Goenkarponn to also resign to protect the Goans’ interest.
He said, “Taxis operating at starred hotels are paid the fare by the hotel which is even lower than what the rate government has notified.” While stoutly denying having assaulted anybody, he said, “There was some fracas because after the GoaMiles taxi owners left, one person charged in saying “I want to see this MLA who is driving us away when we have minister’s support.”
While challenging the Superintendent of Police or anybody to produce the video of him slapping any taxi driver that day, he said he does not mind being arrested as he has been put behind bars earlier for different reasons.
Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco said GoaMiles was given a back door entry by spreading the Goebbels truth of a taxi mafia operating and demanded that the taxi driver’s badge be made mandatory even for the GoaMiles taxi drivers.
While cautioning the taxi drivers of attempts to divide them on the black and yellow and tourist taxi basis, he asked them to remain united and together fight this issue that threatens their very survival.
“We are all Indians but in Goa it is Goans’ first and then the rest,” he said to a thunderous applause.
Congress MLA Wilfred alias Babashan D’Sa said that initially Tourism Minister Babu Ajgaonkar had promised that only Goans would be driving GoaMiles vehicles. “But the reality is that all the drivers are migrants,” he said pointing out that migrants have already taken over the markets whether it is meat, fruit, vegetables and even fish.
Taxi owners from different parts of Goa were present including representatives of the Black and Yellow Taxi Association and North Goa and South Goa Taxi Owners Association besides the members of the Colva Village panchayat and members of other panchayats of Benaulim Constituency.
Meanwhile, all the shops including well known restaurants at Colva beach remained closed on Monday while the shops in the buildings on the road leading to Colva church were open.
