PONDA: Tourist Taxi operators have expressed their frustration at being a soft target for the government despite there being several other stake holders in the tourism business. This sentiment was expressed during a meeting held at the Zareshwar Hall Ponda. They said less then 1% taxi drivers were involved in accidents but the government was after them to install a speed Governor.
In addition there were private taxi operators operating illegally,who were not paying taxes and charged much less.the government had not curbed their operations, the taxi operators claimed. They also wanted a curb on the large number of bikes operating. They rejected the allegation they were looting customers as their business depended on these customers. Government before targeting taxi Drivers should first check the exorbitant charges by other stake holders who had vehemently opposed the installation of GPS in their Vehicles. They said they were ready to install GPS, Speed Governors but maintained the law ought to be uniform for all vehicles. They raised a query as to why the the Government seemed to only target the taxi operators business .
Present at the meeting were Vasu Arlekar President of North Goa Taxi Owners Association, Vice President Ravindra Vengurlekar, Vincy Carvalho President of South Goa Taxi Association, General Secretary Rocky, Ponda Taluka Maruthi Tourist Taxi Association president Baban Sawant, Ramdas Naik and other members.
Legal Advisor Varad Mardolkar demanded government action against the illegal private Taxi drivers who were not members of any Taxi Association from Hoteliers. They also demanded to put a stop to many companies hiring private services of four Wheeler Vehicles. He said the Taxi Owners business was controlled by two departments, RTO and Tourism Department but both these departments had failed to work in coordination to solve their grievances after a memorandum submitted to them against illegal private taxi business was presented.
North Goa Tourist Taxi Association President Vasu Arlekar said The Taxi Drivers livelihood is 101 percent depend on the only Tourist that are arriving in Goa and this season runs for only 7 months while rest of five months they struggle to get customers for them. He appealed the media to conduct Investigative Journalism on them for the facts. He said for the rest of five months they are even forced to mortage their gold of wives in Bank to survive livelihood. Their business is eaten by private taxi operators, hoteliers, tourism agencies.
