The adamant taxi owners of Goa have decided to try and hold to ransom tourists and others in Goa by declaring that they would extend their strike by one more day. They are more than welcome to do so because they have already put themselves in a position where they will be on the verge of irrelevance.
The government has clearly decided that if an agitation against the installation of speed governors in tourist’s taxis, is not called off, taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber will be invited to start operations in Goa, a move which has been accepted and whole-heartedly welcomed by tourists and the people of Goa. The government will however also work on creating a local app-based taxi network to allow the local taxi drivers to be a part of the system where business and convenience go hand in hand for both the drivers and tourists, with absolutely no scope for high handedness and arbitrariness by taxi drivers.
The taxi operators have been making demands which are absolutely absurd.
There is a central notification issued in May stating clearly that commercial vehicles will have to install speed governors to cap the upper speed limit of such vehicles, including taxis. This is not a Goa-centric notification and states have accepted this, because lower speeds bring down the possibility of accidents. The Goa Taxi Owners Association came up with its own logic asking the state to give evidence of fast and reckless driving by Goa taxi operators, essentially saying that they would refuse to obey a central order because they wanted to drive at speeds they wished to. Sorry that does not work. That should not work. And should not be allowed to work.
The tourism stakeholders and the government, thankfully, got their act together and responded by pressing forward a large number of buses and also coordinated with hotels asking them to call for the additional buses along with their own transport. While the GTDC Chairman Nilesh Cabral felt that tourism was impacted since the number of taxis has gone down, the Travel and Tourism Authority of Goa (TTAG) president Savio Messias has thanked the government for providing more than enough buses to drop and receive passengers.
The taxi owners will have themselves to blame if their over ambitious plan to continue their agitation backfires completely. Their isolation, in the minds of tourists is near complete. Most of these taxis, issued to a life of getting exorbitant rates for doing very little work will have to get used to a professional manner of working where their street fights and threats will have no value.
The Goan taxi drivers want high rates, no accountability towards having a digital formula calculate how much their rides deserve.
Like in any major city of India, Goa does not have a fully functional transport system and an effective taxi service should be a part of the system which also have electric buses. If the local taxi drivers do not see beyond this, they are living in a fool’s paradise.
The government should drive home the advantage of taking a tough stand, suspend those who participated in the strike and get the radio taxis to move in.
Goa needs to and will indeed strike down their muscle flexing.
