Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after the High Court of Bombay at Goa disposed of a contempt petition over the non-implementation of digital fare meters, the umbrella body of the travel and tourism industry is apprehensive about the actual operations of the installed GPS-tracking device by the tourist taxi operators.
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The Travel and Tourism Association (TTAG) led a sustained campaign for around six years amid three petitions in the High Court to ensure the tourist taxis are affixed with the device to put an end to unregulated fares charged by the taxi drivers. With the Transport Department claiming that 9,362 out of 11,025 have installed the meters followed by disposal of the petition, the TTAG wants the government to deal with the violators with a heavy hand.
On the other hand, the Transport Department maintained that a command and control centre in the office of the Directorate of Information Technology is set up to keep a vigil on the tourist taxis.
TTAG President Nilesh Shah has called for immediate intervention of the government to ensure strict implementation of the use of taxi meters.
Immediatly, ex president Savio Messias has slammed the authorities for not having stepped up initiatives on the use of the affixed meters.
Transport Director Rajan Satardekar, on being contacted by Herald, denied that the department is lenient on the issue stating that they are set to take action against operators who fail to put in use the digital meters or tamper with the device.
The department, he said, will also shortly introduce a system through which the general public can directly lodge a complaint with the centre on the non-use of the digital meters.
The TTAG demands a transparent manner in which the implementation occurs as the government has spent crores of rupees on subsidies from the exchequer.
