PANAJI
Goa's taxi lobby on Thursday rejected Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's Ganesh Chaturthi 'gift' -- the announcement of free installation of fare meters -- and invoked Lord Ganesh to bestow the state's politicians with "good thoughts" which would help end their stalemate with the government.
Addressing a press conference in Panaji, spokesperson for the protetsing taxi operators Chetan Kamat also urged the Chief Minister to sit across a table with them in order to resolve the long-pending issue.
"The Ganesh Chaturthi gift, which you (CM) claim to have announced should be in the form of scrapping of GoaMiles. Only then, will we will sit across the table and resolve this issue," Kamat said, adding that Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho should also join the public dialogue and prove that the move to purchase and then install the expensive meters was carried out transparently.
"Let us sit across the table... Get the transport authorities, Transport Minister and address the transparency issue and hear our woes related to the fare meters," Kamat said.
Kamat also insisted that the fare meters which are being installed by the government were faulty.
"The meters are faulty, it eats into the battery. The meter malfunctions. When the taxi is switched off and parked for the night, by morning the battery is down... If a taxi catches fire, will the government buy our taxi operators a new car? Governemnt has to tell us this," Kamat also said.
Kamat also said that the BJP-led coalition government in the state had betrayed taxi operators for nearly three years with empty promises.
"We have been having faith in the BJP government for three years, but the BJP government has betrayed us. We have never even been given an appointment (to meet the CM)," Kamat said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Goa cabinet formally cleared a proposal, according to which the government would bear the cost of the fare meters, which would then be installed in cabs free of cost. The data charges, which are also levied on the taxi operators, would also be borne by the state government for a year, Sawant said.
Godinho quotes Nehru's 'ajeeb'
remark to slam unyielding lobby
PANAJI: While top BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself, have repeatedly slammed India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the recent past, Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Thursday, quoted Nehru's oblique critique of the Goan mindset, in order to put the ongoing standoff between the government and the taxi lobby in context.
Asked to respond to the continued opposition of taxi owners to the installation of fare meters, despite the state government's decision to provide them free of cost, Godinho said: "Ultimately, people should have the luxury of choosing what they want. But a Prime Minister had once said 'Goa ke log ajeeb hai'. Because they are ajeeb, we have accommodated them as much as possible". "We went to the farthest extent. We did not allow app based taxis, OLA Uber (as demanded by local taxi owners). They said we will install a meter, but we do not have the money for it. So we gave it free. Now if they say (no), it is not acceptable".
Godinho also said that if the taxi owners continue with their obdurate position, despite obvious efforts made by the state government to meet their demands, then the people would teach them a lesson.
"...then I think they will learn a lesson from the people only. People will judge them. People are against them because of such stands which they take," Godinho said.
Godinho also said that the Transport department had even increased fares by Rs. 3 per km in wake of the hike in fare prices, but added that there were a few rotten apples in the taxi lobby, which were playing truant.
"Rs. 3 increase per km. It is the highest increase they could have dreamt of. Other states have not increased fares to this extent. if there are two rotten apples, the whole basket of apples gets rotten. Government has accommodated to the maximum," he said.
The stand-off between the taxi operators and the government has continued even after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's announcement that the state treasury would bear the cost of the meters, instead of the taxi operators. The decision, Sawant said, was a goodwill gesture on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. The taxi operators however have continued to stick to their original demand of scrapping GoaMiles, the state's only app-based cab aggregator.
There are currently 18,000 tourist taxis registered with the Transport Department.
