To the relief of the government as well as tourists and the tourism industry, the striking taxi owners withdrew their one-and-a-half day strike, which had almost crippled the industry on Monday and Tuesday morning when almost 10,000 tourist taxis, tempos and tour buses stayed off the road. The tourist taxi unions withdrew their strike minutes after Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar assured to act against the illegal rent-a-cab and rent-a-bike businesses. The government has declared it will form an eleven-member committee of legislators to investigate the illegal operations. The government also directed Goa Police and Transport department to immediately crackdown on the illegal rental vehicles. One point remained undecided – the decision to install digital fare meters.
However, what now remains to be answered is whether the strike was justified. Did the government succumb to the demands of the taxi operators as this is election year and it does not want to antagonize anyone? Notably, the demands of the taxi owners were to stop illegal private cars/motor bikes (non-commercial) transport vehicles under MV section 53/B, 54, 55. Taxi owners also demanded that taxi fare rates be displayed in all hotels and at prominent tourists spots, while the decision on taxi fare meters and GPS implementation will be taken only after discussion with all the concerned taxi associations. They also demanded the discontinuance of KTC services from airport to different destination and withdrawal of criminal cases against association members.
While the first two demands are debatable, the other three demands should not have merited the government’s consideration. Across the world, including India, airports are well connected through metro services, public transport, taxis and auto rickshaws but it is only in Goa that taxis have the monopoly. Why should air travellers not have a choice? It should be a level playing field, where the travellers decide their mode of journey from and to the airport. There is no reason for the government to withdraw the KTC services just because the taxi operators ask this. KTC is showing losses so allow it to get a piece of the tourism pie so that it earns some revenue.
If a person – whether local or tourist – can reach the airport from Calangute for just Rs 100 taking along his luggage why should he pay Rs 1500 to a taxi driver? There is no justification. This could result in killing the goose that lays the golden egg. After the mining ban, it is only tourism which the State depends on but this attitude of overpricing and cheating will bring down the number of arrivals. As it is footfalls of foreign tourists have gone down drastically.
Also the demand that rent-a-cabs be not granted licenses is debatable, as across the world tourist spots have this facility, so why should Goa be an exception? Taxi owners claim they aren’t getting business, but then many own more than one taxi. Here it is the government that is at fault as despite there being more than 10,000 taxis registered and the number of tourist arrivals is dropping there is no moratorium on the grant of permits to taxis. At the least the government should not issue more than one permit to a person. Or else the issue that the government faced with truckers after the mining ban will repeat if the tourism industry fails.
Time and again TTAG and other tourist stakeholders have reminded the government of overpricing by the taxi operators but their voices have fallen on deaf ears due to the vote-bank politics. Many legislators, especially in coastal areas, are dependent on taxi operators during elections and hence they do not want to antagonize the voters. The one-and-a-half day taxi strike could end up giving Goa tourism a bad name.
