Team Herald
PANJIM: Taxi operators are at present protesting against the installation of speed governors and alleged harassment by the Transport department officials. The association has also been standing with a heap of demands from the Government for past several years.
The demands have only seen assurances from successive Governments but no hard action to resolve the issue say sources.
The association was also protesting against the installation of the digital taxi meters and global positioning system to the taxis. Though the taxi operators said they were not hesitant to installing the meters, they would do so only if their demands are met.
“We are not against the fare meters but what we are now asking the Government is to prepare the fresh fare chart considering the type of the vehicle”, said Taxi union leader Vinayak Nanoskar.
He said that Government should make all the provisions and necessary infrastructure ready before implementing the digital meters.
Taxi operators said that installation of speed governors to all the tourist vehicles will badly affect the business.
“Speed governors cannot be installed in the all India permit vehicles because it will take double time to reach the destination, max it can be fitted only in taxis which have only the State permit”, said Laxman Korgaonkar, a taxi union leader.
There are genuine practical difficulties Nanoskar said. “The manufacturer of the vehicle is not granting a warranty if the speed governors are installed to the vehicles.
“New vehicles which are under the warranty will be badly affected if the manufacturer of the vehicle is not giving the warranty in case of any manufacturing defect during warranty period”, he said.
Another most important demand is to stop the illegal practice of renting private vehicles.
“This has affected our business largely. We have been demanding action against these operators for many years, but nothing has been done while legal taxi operators have been harassed,” Nanoskar said.
Another issue of the taxi operators is of issuing permits, the operators have said that the department takes over a month to issue while the vehicles which are operating outside State are been affected.
Taxis are being operated by foreigners in Morjim and Ashwem belt. This is another issue before the taxi operators in the respective areas, they alleged.
