TEAM HERALD
CALANGUTE: The Annual General Body Meeting of the North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners Association (NGTTOA) adopted a resolution against addition to the existing 10 women taxis owned by a private company and hired by Goa Tourism. Vasudev Arlekar, President of NGTTOA said that Goa Tourism is fooling and eating into the tourism business of Goan taxi owners by bringing in outsiders through the back door.
Goa Tourism initially said that the women taxi services belongs to them but later on it came to public knowledge that Goa Tourism is being paid 5% for hiring the services. GTDC used to get at least 10% from the taxi owners for rendering their services.
Arlekar also came down heavily on the rent-a-car services with registration numbers from South Goa and questioned why NGTTOA members should not get the service to ply their taxis or give it on rent. He alleged that the taxi owners are facing business worries only because the rent car owners are either hiring more and more cars from down South Goa or purchasing more. The government or Dept of Transport department should provide them an option to rent or hire their taxis to counter the private rent a car owners.
The NGTTOA members condemned the incident of damages to the taxi of their spokesperson by unknown persons having links to the rent-a-car trade and urged the Calangute Police to nab the culprits without any delay. The members also decided to march to the Calangute Police Station demanding immediate action in the matter.
Ravindra Vengurlekar, Vice President of NGTTOA highlighted the activities and initiatives by the association for the benefit of their members including revision in subsidy to maximum of Rs 4.00 lakh, refund of excess taxes, assistance to members in RTO Offices.
He also divulged that a advertising company intends to pay taxi owners Rs 2500 per month with an agreement for advertising on their taxis. The company officials later explained the details to the members.
The members also discussed the issue of Karnataka-Maharashtra border tax besides the issues haunting the tourist taxi trade. The minutes of the previous meeting were read while the Income and Expenditure details were also disclosed to the members.
