FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: After a large amount of drama, the protesting taxi owners finally met the Transport Minister and Transport Director on the 15th day of their strike.
However, the delegation informed the media after their meeting that the government was unable to present them with a solution. Therefore, they stated that they have rejected the government’s appeal to call off the strike for a month’s time and instead will continue with their strike indefinitely until their demands are fulfilled.
Incidentally, before their meeting could begin, there were issues. The delegation comprising women – family members of the taxi owners – was made to wait for half an hour before the meeting could begin.
To this, the women members accused the government of not taking them seriously at a time when they are fighting for their fundamental right to livelihood.
At this point some of the other taxi owners insisted that they wanted all the discussions between the minister and themselves to be telecast live and in front of the media.
Government officials at the Secretariat said the delay was due to the thermal checks of all the delegation members. Police were also present outside the Ministerial Block where the delegation members were waiting impatiently.
Nevertheless, around 5 pm, half an hour after the scheduled start, the meeting did take place with no one going live on social media while media persons too were not allowed at the meeting.
Nearly 45 minutes later, when the taxi owners returned from the meeting, they said the meeting had failed to address the demands they had put forward. These were, to cancel GoaMiles and app-based taxi services and to ban taxi aggregators in the future.
Addressing media persons, taxi union leader Laxman (Bappa) Korgaonkar expressed surprise that there were other people present at the meeting, who were part of essential services. However, he said these essential service providers said they are extending their full support to them.
He then said Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho only repeated what he had already told them before and brushed aside Godinho’s criticism about how GoaMiles was brought in by another department, given that ultimately, it was the same government that brought in the app-based taxi service.
He also called the talk about handing over the counter from the Tourism Department to the Transport Department all hype and said GoaMiles not being allowed to use the airport counter is not the solution they were looking for.
They added that they want the government to issue orders to fulfill their demands and that they will not accept anything else.
He added that they have the support of taxi owners from Querim in North Goa and Canacona in South Goa.
He concluded by stating they have full belief that Godinho can meet their demands. They added that they do not share the same belief in the BJP government. He also acknowledged that the meeting was cordial, something that Godinho also admitted in his press briefing held thereafter.
The taxi operators then proceeded to meet their fellow protestors who were continuing their strike in Panjim and chalk out their next plan of action.
