Are we seeing the initial signs of the thaw in the face off between the hitherto adamant taxi operators of Goa and the stakeholders of Goa’s tourism? And if that is the case, not only will the government breathe a sigh of relief, it will allow the local taxi operators to redeem a lot of the ground and goodwill they have lost over the past year.
A change must begin by the taxi operators of Goa realising that neither the tourists of Goa, or locals, or even tourism stakeholders, are waiting for a specific international brand like Ola and Uber to come and disrupt the business of locals. But when the manner in which this “business” is conducted becomes the bane of tourism, it has to be revaluated, not just for tourists but for the taxi owners too.
This when over 200 taxi-men of North and South Goa with the Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao – from whom the issue is pure politics and nothing else – met Salcete’s lone minister Vijai Sardesai and the visitors agreed not to object to meters and apps, the ground indeed moved towards progress.
But there is still ground to be covered, since Goa’s taxi owners still have this sense of being persecuted and wronged, while there is empirical evidence that it is the tourists, and Goa’s tourism which has been wronged and hurt beyond imagination by the behaviour of a section of Goa’s taxi men. However, it is equally important to study whether Goa’s taxi operators have indeed been wronged and if so, solutions need to be found to correct the wrongs.
Also their demand for “justice” needs to be spelt out not just clearly but logically and that doesn’t seem to be in evidence now. The limited demand that there should be no scope for illegal taxis is obvious. No one is supporting illegal taxis to being in Goa. Their second demand is that all other private car operators should not be allowed to do business in the rental space. This again cannot be met without assessing the demand of the market. If a tourist wants to rent a self-drive car and use it, he or she, like anywhere else in the world, should have that choice. Multiple choices to tourists cannot be denied at any cost. But to ensure that business does not go out of Goan hands, the self-drive car rental business should also be regulated and run by Goans.
But at the same time, the taxi associations should refrain from making statements, which border on the ridiculous, like they did after Thursday’s meeting with the TCP minister. Read the comment of the president of the All Goa Taxi Owners Association “The compulsion of app and meter to all the legal taxis will give complete free hand to illegal taxis in Goa and the legal taxis will be at loss.” Can he even begin to explain what he means? How would an app-based taxi service linked to the server of the radio taxi service provider, be used by ‘illegal taxi operators’.
It is important that this face off does not boil down to a debate between demands and the fulfilment of those demands but measured on the touch stone of merit and fairness. And taxi owners, have the right to demands fairness. And that fairness can come by ensuring that the radio-based and app-based taxi service, like Ola and Uber, is a local but efficient version of the same, so that the profits remain in Goa.
The move towards mechanised taxis which are monitored and controlled by radio, is not a day too late. And the support, albeit conditionally, of the taxi owners for this cause, hasn’t come a day too early.
