A user named ‘ashnd’ on the web portal
‘Team-BHP.com’ under the category, ‘Street and Travel Experiences’, posted his
harrowing experience in Ladakh recently. The blog speaks about how a convoy of
12 private vehicles that included two self-drive rentals, was assaulted
mercilessly by the taxi mafia and the employees of Karu Taxi in Ladakh. The
blog also features a few pictures that speak of the ruthlessness with which the
vehicles were vandalised without any sensitivity towards its occupants. In his
post, ashnd says, “We were discouraged from registering an FIR and did not see
any concrete action being taken against the offenders. We had to leave Leh a
day later under police escort. Even otherwise, all through the route, the taxi
drivers were tail-gating us and coming onto our side of the road, just to cause
an accident and to instigate us into getting into a tussle with them. This has
been a truly harrowing experience that we will never forget. I would advise
extreme caution when travelling to Leh in the near future even if going by
private vehicle. Please do not even consider taking a self-drive rental to this
part of the country under the present circumstances.” The post did not take
much time before it spread like wild fire on the social media and everyone took
turns to post tales of their unpleasant experiences.
This incident serves as a spine-chilling
reminder of how innocent tourists have been in a similar situation in Goa on a
few occasions in the past. Especially in South Goa, stories of the harassment
meted out by the taxi mafia to tourists have been near ‘legendary’. Kshipra
Naik from Arossim says, “On one occasion, a bus full of tourists who were in
Goa to attend a wedding at five-star property in Goa were made to alight and
the bus was vandalised. Furthermore, a few occupants, including the groom, were
assaulted. Apparently, the taxi mafia here is unhappy with tourists driving
down in their own/self-rented cars or taxis. They insist on tourists making use
of the taxis in Goa and indirectly succumbing to the exorbitant taxi rental
charges.” Another person from Panjim, Marcus Lobo shares his experience that
happened just last month. Lobo says, “A foreigner friend of mine, an elderly
woman had come to visit me. On one occasion, she had to visit another friend in
Calangute and I had kept my private, chauffeur-driven car at her disposal.
While in Calangute, the cab drivers pulled her out saying that she (being a
foreigner/tourist) ‘has to’ take a cab. They didn’t let her get into car until
I personally went there and pleaded with them and convinced them.”
Most are of the opinion that it is high
time that the taxi operators in Goa follow a regulated tariff card and install
government authorised meters in their vehicles, to ensure a fair transaction
between the tourist and the taxi operator. A few have even raised concerns over
the unjustified high tolerance levels of the government authorities while
dealing with taxi operators. While business operators agree in unison that last
tourist season was perhaps the worst that Goa has experienced in recent times,
a majority also holds the taxi mafia responsible for ‘driving’ the tourists away.
However, there is another point that Jason
Keith Fernandes raises in his blog, that was also published in a local
newspaper in Goa. Fernandes, in his blog, ‘The Taxi gangs and Mafia of Goa?
Placing issues in perspective’ says, “What is required is not merely the
introduction of meters into taxis, but the presence of a genuine regulatory
system, one that does not operate merely to punish, but to ensure fair and
equal treatment for all involved. Thus we do need a greater presence of the
State in this scenario, but it is not merely a punitive police State, but a
justice-concerned regulatory State. This latter State, most of us will
acknowledge, has been more than absent from Goa for a good many years.
Furthermore, it is important for us to
take off our prejudiced blinkers, stem the criminalised perspective from which
we view the taxistas, and recognise that while actively contributing to the
mess that the taxi-system in Goa is, they are as much victims of the system,
and it would be more appropriate to see their behaviour as the result of the
position that they have been cast into.”
