Team Herald
PANJIM: As a means of resolving the issues related to the tourist taxi association and rent-a-cab owners, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar called for a meeting with the two associations along with the ministers for tourism, transport, panchayat, police officials and coastal zone MLAs.
Parsekar heard the suggestions and the problems faced by the All Goa Taxi Owners’ Association and the All Goa Rent-a-Cab Association and assured he will decide on what is to be done.
“I have listened to both sides and will take a decision on what to do in the coming weeks,” he said.
During the meeting, members of the taxi owners’ association stressed on the burden rent-a-cabs would create if they were legalized. “We discussed with the CM and other ministers how our business will be affected if rent-a-cabs are legalized in the State. He heard all of our suggestions and promised to take a decision soon,” said Vinayak Nanuskar of North Goa Tourist Taxi Association.
On the other hand, Rent-a-Cab Association president Ramdas Palkar called for regularization of vehicles adding that there could be a balance of both taxis as well as rent-a-cab vehicles.
“In our demand to the CM we have asked for regularization of our business. We made it clear that at the most we will have 5 to 6 vehicles per person unlike companies that apply for 100s of vehicles. Some tourists when they visit the State prefer to move around by themselves in vehicles rented out. In the past, this has not been a problem and we hope to get a good result from the meeting,” said Palkar.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, speaking after the meeting, said he had asked that rent-a-cabs should not be legalised.
“The ultimate decision is with the CM which we expect in the next week or within 10 days. We also discussed issues including installing of meters in taxis but we need to take the owners into consideration before installing them,” he said.
