VASCO: The United Taximen Association (UTA), a union of the Yellow-Black taxi operators at Dabolim International Airport on Monday said that they would have been spared from such an embarrassment, if Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was in the state.
“We miss our Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar a lot today. If he was in Goa then we would have not faced such a embarrassing situation where our own state administration today not only refused to pay any heed to our pleas but is also seen supporting the new car rental operators by deploying large number of police force at the airport as if we are some criminals,” said UTA President Sanjay Naik.
Naik said, “Since the beginning, Parrikar has extended his full support to the union and it was only Parrikar who intervened and brought two different taxi unions at airport together and merged them.”
“Initially there were two taxi unions operating from the airport including Yellow-Black and Tourist Taxi union. However, it was Parrikar, who intervened and brought both the union together and merged us into one Union. He never went against us nor used any police forced against us, even when we were fighting amongst each other as members of different taxi unions at the airport,” Naik claimed.
“Today, we as UTA have been extending all support the state government. However, in absence of Parrikar the administration is using force only to embarrass us. If he was here he would have not allow such things to happen. It’s a black day for all taxi operators as state administration and government showed us that they are with outsiders,” Naik alleged.
Prasad Prabhugaonkar, who is the former president of tourist taxi union that merged with Yellow-Black airport said, “We miss ‘Bhai’(Parrikar) as today we feel that if he was in Goa we would have been spared from facing such an embarrassing situation where authorities have been talking only in favour of new car rental operators and not in our favour. Today, it reminds us how Parrikar as Chief Minister took a bold decision and stopped similar car rental counter operated by STC at the airport. In fact during the merger of two unions, Parrikar had promised us that he will not allow any other counter at the airport, but now in his absence this new counter has surfaced and we still don’t know why they had to bring so much police,” Prabhugaonkar questioned.
