PANJIM: A day after the Yellow and Black Taxi Association decided to hit the road once again, the South Goa Taxi Owners Association on Thursday took a similar line ending the seven-day strike demanding scrapping to taxi aggregator app GoaMiles.

On Wednesday the Yellow and Black Taxi Association withdrew agitation after meeting chief minister Dr Pramod Sawant saying he has agreed to protect their interest.

The All Goa Taxi Owners Association met the chief minister at Assembly late Thursday evening and called off the strike. Speaking to the media after the meeting, All Goa Taxi Owners Association secretary Gangaram Phadke said that the Chief Minister has assured to look into their grievances. “Chief Minister was sympathetic to owners grievances’ and he has assured to resolve them in phases,” he said.

He, however, added that the chief minister asked them to withdraw the strike and come back on road ‘which we have agreed’. “We have called off the strike from right now and urge all our members to do so as the issue is of livelihood and we know everyone has been inconvenienced and facing loses,” he said. When asked on GoaMiles, Phadke said there was no discussion on GoaMiles.

Earlier, the South Goa taxi owners alongwith Benulim MLA Churchill Alemao and Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginald Lourenco met the CM and decided to call of strike. “The Chief Minister has agreed to look into our demands and the meeting was fruitful hence we have decided to call off the strike,” the South Goa Taxi leaders said.

Alemao said that the CM assured them that GoaMiles cabs will not pick customers from any hotels and designated stands of tourist taxis. “They will only drop the customers and leave,” he stated.

The North Goa Taxi owners also met the CM but the decision wasn’t taken yet as they remained adamant GoaMiles should be scrapped. “We want the GoaMiles to be scrapped, there is no going back on that,” said the North Goa leaders adding “we have a meeting in Calangute tomorrow and we will decided future course of action.”