Team Herald
PANJIM: The All Goa Taxi Owners’ Association on Wednesday demanded that the government extend the deadline to install the meters by another six months.
The demand comes after the State government announced on Tuesday that all taxis have to install digital meters by Thursday without revising the taxi rates.
The association and its connected regional tourist taxi unions have sought that the deadline for installing the meters be extended.
They further sought the intervention of the Chief Minister, Transport Minister, Director and Secretary.
The Association also slammed the rule as they claimed that no permits will be issued without fitment of meters.
They questioned the purpose of the recent government exercise where feedback in the form of suggestions and objections had been invited from the public regarding the digital meters.
“That deadline just got over. The government should have first gone through that and responded to the feedback. They have made this announcement so quickly. It’s completely not right. What happened to the government holding meetings and finalising the new rates as promised,” said a taxi owner.
They claimed to have some doubts regarding how it would function, what all would happen in case of meter breakdowns, etc, and had sought for clarity on such issues.
Taxi union leader Laxman ‘Bappa’ Korgaonkar and another member in separate short videos felt that the government should not have such a decision without revising the rates first, as the same has been long overdue.
They referred to their taxi strike last month following which they had met the Transport Minister and how the second round of negotiations that the Minister assured to convene, never took place.
The union also argued against the government’s stance that it is following the directives of the High Court and added that the government could have informed the court that it is able to finalise the deadline due to several difficulties including the pandemic.
The taxi owners said this was an injustice to them and their families who are currently battling with COVID-19 as many of their people are admitted in hospitals or in mourning.
