VASCO: The tourist taxi operators from North and South Goa have called for a State-wide strike on January 19 to protest alleged harassment by RTO officers as well as the implementation of speed governors. However, the airport taxi union has decided not to join the strike so as to avoid any inconvenience to the airport passengers.
Sanjay Naik, the president of United Taximen Union (a union of 350 odd airport taxi operators) said, “We the airport taxi union will not support the strike called by the North and South Goa Tourist taxi unions. Our services will be fully operational as we cannot go off the road leaving airport passengers to face inconvenience.”
Naik feared that his union members might be harassed by the striking operators as it happened the last time. However, he hoped that the same may not be repeated this time around.
“Last time, when similar strike was called and when we had kept our taxis operational, some of our taxis were stopped at Siolim as well as in Candolim. During that strike, the protesters took our taxis after forcibly evicting the driver and passengers from the car. The vehicles were returned to us only in the evening. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, this time we have decided to avoid internal routes with guests and to drop them at important public areas like bus stands, or to the hotels located on the main road and not on internal roads,” Naik said.
