Although the 9,000-odd tourist taxi operators justify the strike called earlier this week was a wakeup call to the BJP-led coalition reminding to fulfill the long pending demands, the entire State was unarguably held to ransom.
The news flashing all over the internet and social media created panic among commuters, particularly thousands of tourists who were either to arrive in the State or depart. The warm hospitability that Goa is known for is now under question.
“Not a single cabbie was willing to drive till the airport. We boarded four buses from Calangute to reach Dabolim (airport). Since the news was doing the rounds two-to-three days ahead of the strike, we thankfully planned an alternative mode of transport,” 40-year-old Niti Anand, originally from Ranchi, Jamshedpur said.
The tourist, who along with her businessman husband and two underage children was vacationing in the northern coastal belt, said her family was disappointed with the negative development.
While this was the situation of tourists exiting Goa after spending a memorable vacation, Herald came across an elderly Punjabi couple who arrived by Rajdhani Express at Margao only to see that there was no taxi service. A Goan family, who had come to pick their daughter studying in Delhi lent a helping hand.
“The couple had visited Goa a decade ago and wanted to recreate those memories. But unfortunately, they were greeted by a grim situation. We then decided to drop them to the hotel where they had a booking. It is not a big deal for us because they are our (Goa’s) guests,” Ankita Naik said, adding that the couple had train berths next to her daughter’s.
As many as 15,000 tourist taxis remained off the roads defying ESMA invoked by the State government and despite being well-aware that commuters would be largely affected. However, Vinayak Nanoskar, General Secretary of the All Goa Tourist Taxi Association justified that they were forced to take this decision, and the government should bear the responsibility.
“We too did not want to put people through such hardship but we were left with no alternative than to resort to a strike. The government does not wake up until people come on to the streets,” he said.
Though the government had immediately tied up with the Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited providing shuttle services to the affected passengers, it realized how serious the situation could get if the taxi operators remained adamant on their decision. When the aggrieved unions – AGTTA, North and South Goa TTAs warned to convert the strike into an indefinite one, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar personally intervened inviting the delegation to break the deadlock.
After an hour-long meeting, the major demand to crackdown on the illegal rent-a-car and rent-a-bikes were met. For the rest of the demands like installing digital fare meters, closing the 2014 violence case against taxi operators etc, the CM formed an eleven member committee.
“Our demands are partially met but since the hoteliers were losing business, we decided to resume business. If the problems are not resolved within the deadline of four weeks, we will be back on the streets,” Nanoskar warned.
With the tourism industry conceding that some stakeholders like shacks did bear the brunt of the strike, Goa Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Nilesh Cabral stated that being tourism brand ambassadors, the tourist taxi operators should not resort to such adverse measures that send out a wrong signal to prospective tourists planning holidays in Goa.
While the upset Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) slammed the striking operators over the move, TTAG President Francisco de Braganca alleged that private cars driven by the very same tourist taxi drivers made major profits discreetly on their phone and dropped guests to various destinations.
As various stakeholders are still debating the burning issue, there’s another headache for the government. After pacifying the taxi operators, the rent-a-car operators are upset, threatening to go on strike if the State dilly-dallies on their demand to grant permits to their business.
