Team Herald

PORVORIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Wednesday night assured the Goa Legislative Assembly that the GoaMiles app will not be scrapped. He, however, requested tourist taxi operators to come forth with a proposal to develop an independent app or join GoaMiles.

Speaking at the end of long discussion on the subject, Sawant said, “We will not back out from running GoaMiles, if you want come out with your app. The government will support and promote your app.”

He added, “We will not buy more vehicles and ensure that taxi services under GoaMiles are taken. Join app-based service for three months and if you are not satisfied with the services then we will review. I am ready to support their app and promote their app. Today taxi operators are struggling to earn Rs 15-20,000 a month, I assuring you that if you enrol under GoaMiles you will end up earning minimum Rs 40,000 per month.”

He further said that a large number of fatal accidents on Goan roads involve tourists, who get confused regarding the roads. Sawant said the unavailability of affordable taxi service results in tourists opting for rent-a-bike resulting in risking their lives on Goan roads. “While moving forward we have to adopt technology or else we will lag behind. We are worried about the future of local taxi operators. GoaMiles technology domain and keywords is with GTDC they are just a contractor.” 

He further stated that GoaMiles is ready to pay for car insurance and government is in talks with GoaMiles to ensure that every taxi driver and owner gets an assured minimum business. “By installing digital meters the security of tourists cannot be ensured. We don’t want Ola and Uber in Goa, we want Goans to run the taxi service,” he added.

Stating that the government cannot run a taxi service on its own as it will never go as per plans, he requested the taxi owners not to hold an agitation. 

Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho addressed the taxi operators as the true ambassadors of Goa for keeping up the name of the State and promoting the State. However, speaking in favour of the app he said, “We need to keep the opinion of the people and the tourists after GoaMiles has been brought into the taxi industry. There are only a few taxi owners and their leaders who have been taken for a ride that if GoaMiles is allowed then the taxi business will be over for the Goans. When the whole world is going digital, then do we want to remain behind by not going towards technology?”

He added that GoaMiles is willing to appoint a coordination director who will be nominated by the Goan taxi owners. He said, “The coordination director will be given a salary equal to the taxi business personally. They have agreed Re 1 to be put for the taxi driver welfare fund and government will also contribute Re 1 to the fund so that in future there can be welfare services including pension for the taxi drivers in the future.” 

Stating that there can be many changes which can be brought about, he said it can happen only by not opposing everything. “GoaMiles is just a service provider and like other States there was opposition earlier but they now have app-based taxis. I request the Goan taxi operators to keep aside prestige and ego and join the app-based taxi operation. Whatever changes need to be brought to streamline the taxi business we will do it,” he said.

Earlier Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat said, “It is not just the issue of the taxi operators but the employment of Goans. As a child I have been seeing the taxi operations and there has not been a case against these operators. I had asked for the complaints received by the Department and the reply is that only five complaints have been received.”

He further said, “They should have been taken into confidence while bringing the taxi app and if that was done then this day would not have come. When they complaint against GoaMiles then GoaMiles are protected and the local taxi operator is put behind the bars. Goa is a small State with 15 lakh population and one cannot compare Goa with other countries and others metros in the country. Except the metros and cities, even in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra you will see local taxis and not app- based taxis.”

He requested the Chief Minister to take all stakeholders into confidence and not allow the issue to escalate and come up with a solution. 

Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) Chairman Dayanand Sopte said, “The way truck owners went bankrupt due to stoppage of mining industry, if we do not think of the future of the tourism then the taxi operators will also ruin their future. I’m not in favour of GoaMiles and I am in favour of Goa taxi brothers. I request the taxi owners to develop your app.”

Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao who had moved the motion for the discussion and had taken the lead said, “Since the early 1990s the sons of the soil have toiled in taxi business and the shacks to promote the tourism. Let five foreigners come to the House and submit that they have been charged exhorbitantly. All taxi owners have agreed to install meters, then why do we need an app in the State? Domicile must be mandatory for a driver for taxi operation. And what if something like Sri Lanka happens in Goa then who will be held responsible. Therefore a demand that 25 years domicile is made mandatory for getting taxi driver badge.”

Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco supporting the taxi operators said, “Taxi operators are the reason for making Goa a safe destination in the world. Hotels have grown in the State due to taxi operators. It has to be Goan’s interest first. Taxi businesses are for self-employment. Is this not a nexus between drugs, prostitution and the app-based taxi operators? When government is a stakeholder then why no information is available under RTI? We will see to it that Goans get taxis at cheap fares.”

Former Transport Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar said, “We have come to this day as the taxi operators declined to follow the directions to install meters. They have to install speed governors and meters and there is no other alternative but to follow rules and regulations. For us to support the taxi owners they have to follow the rules and regulations.”

Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte said, “If we want to take care of tourism then there is need for discipline in the tourism industry. There is a need for transparency. The world has come to a mass transit system. I had proposed as IT Minister to develop an app for the taxi owners and help them do their business. An app is must, whichever it is, I am not saying it has to be GoaMiles. Technology has to be incorporated. If we fail today, we will fail forever.”