PANAJI
The agitating taxi operators from Pernem finally met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday late evening. Another meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 26.
Observing that there is no headway in the ongoing strike by taxi operators, Pernem MLA Pravin Arlekar acted as a mediator between the government and the striking taxi owners.
Speaking to media persons post-meeting, Sawant said that yet another round of meetings is scheduled for Monday, August 26, to discuss in detail their six demands. “All their issues will be resolved. I have requested them to call off their strike,” Sawant said.
Taxi operators want all app-based taxi service counters at Mopa airport to be stopped. They want the rollback of the toll on Mopa link road for taxis and the stopping of the illegal use of private vehicles as taxis and rental cabs. They also demand that the old road to Mopa Airport be kept open for traffic.
Bowing to the taxi operators’ demand, GMR has already reduced the parking fee from Rs 200 to Rs 80 and increased the waiting time from 5 minutes to 10 minutes.
Earlier in the day, a meeting between the Chief Minister and the agitating taxi operators, to find a solution to the vexed issue, failed, as the taxi owners expressed displeasure over allowing only a ten-member delegation for the meeting.
Sawant said that the entire agitation is “politically motivated” and that some people are trying to take political advantage of the taxi issue.
“I had told them only taxi operators from Pernem should come for discussion because today’s issue was only about Pernem. Even now I am ready to talk to them and ready to accept all their demands,” he said, adding “everything is politically motivated”.
“As far as other taxi operators are concerned, I am already in discussion with other MLAs and we will shortly solve their issue,” he said while maintaining that MLAs, cutting across party lines, are unanimous in support of app-based taxi services.
He said that the tourism stakeholders are also in support of such services.
Meanwhile, a delegation of 25 taxi operators came to the official residence of the CM at Altinho for the meeting. However, the taxi operators left the scene, saying the CM had asked only 10 members to meet him. “Earlier we were told 25 members would be allowed and now they are calling only 10. This is injustice to us. We don’t want to talk to the CM,” they said.
