Team Herald
MARGAO: The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) has condemned the ‘criminal behavior’ of the taxi drivers who gheraoed tourist buses at the Mormugao Port’s Cruise Terminal three days ago. The industry body has demanded stern action against the perpetrators and termed it as ‘a criminal act abetted by petty politicians.’
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“On 14th December, in a shocking incident, over 100 cruise tourists were prevented by the local taxi drivers from availing their pre-booked coach services for sightseeing, and practically held hostages at the Mormugao Harbour. This has damaged the fair name of Goa and its people. There are already reports coming in from some prominent cruise operators that they may cancel Goa as a destination port for cruise liners and we may be blacklisted by the cruise liner companies,” said GCCI President Ralph de Sousa.
“There is a High Court order in operation which clearly specifies that the mode of transport should be the choice of the commuter. This act is a gross violation of this HC order and amounts to contempt of court,” he added.
“It takes a lifetime to brand a tourist destination, which these taxi drivers have tarnished permanently by creating a serious law and order problem. This problem is not confined to the harbour alone but can be witnessed at many South Goa hotels as well.This will result in tourists giving South Goa a miss and the taxi drivers themselves will have no business due to their own destructive actions,” said the GCCI President.
“The GCCI, on behalf of the people of Goa, apologizes to the cruise tourists. Being our honoured guests, they were treated shabbily by the taxi drivers,” said De Souza, adding that GCCI will pursue the matter with the government and police to bring the culprits
to task.
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Mormugao MLA apologises, says taxi union clash was due to ‘miscommunication’
Team Herald
VASCO: Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar has apologised for the clash between taxi drivers and tour operators at the Mormugao Port’s cruise terminal on Wednesday. Speaking to media persons at Vasco on Friday, Amonkar said that the incident occurred due to ‘miscommunication and misunderstanding’. He said that it was wrong to send back the coach with 80 international tourists. “I feel that it was my responsibility equally; this should not have happened. I take full responsibility and I apologise to everyone on behalf of the people of Mormugao and taxi union as well,” he said. Amonkar also refuted the allegations made by the tour operators that the taxi operators were extorting coach owners and charging international passengers exorbitantly, in dollars. He challenged the tour operators to produce evidence to prove their allegations, or to withdraw their statements. The MLA said that there were no issues with the previous 13 ships that had docked at the Port. He said that the incident with the 14th ship was due to a miscommunication on the part of the tour operators, who did not inform the police, nor the taxi union of the booking done for the ship arriving with 80 passengers.
