TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The tourist taxi owners have decided to call an all Goa bandh on April 13, if the government doesn’t pay heed to their list of demands which were put before it more than a year ago.
“When Parrikar was CM, he had assured us that he would look into the demands. Then the new CM came, and after that, election after election. It is time they start listening and work on the demands we have placed before them,” Vinayak Nanoskar, general secretary of the North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners Association said.
Talking about the government’s recent proposal to introduce Global Positioning System in taxis, president of the association Vasu Arlekar said that they would comply if everyone else did.
“We will wholeheartedly accept the government’s proposals if the same measures are introduced for all the stakeholders in the tourism business,” Arlekar said.
Speaking to media Saturday, the taxi owners, were enraged for having not been given any help despite the many illegalities they claim the government commits. The issues of facilitating operation of taxi companies, gnawing into self-employed tourist taxis, the fancy launching of women taxis, illegal Russian operators and exorbitant price tags by the TTAG managed tour operators have not been addressed, they said.
Of the many demands put forth before the government, the taxi owners have asked for fare charts, and boards to be displayed in different places and to stop taxi cabs like Ola and Mega Cabs to operate in the State.
