PANAJI
Atish Fernandes, director, business development, First Class Holidays, said, “The message that the strike was called off was slow in reaching out to people” More than three hours after the strike was called off, Francis Fernandes, manager, Villa Fatima Beach Resort in Baga, said, “I am yet to hear from anyone that the taxi owners have actually withdrawn their strike.” Fernandes continued, “We cater to foreign tourists, who come on charter flights. In a situation like this, when there wasn t any tourist taxi for close to two days, we told our foreign guests to relax only at Baga or Calangute since there was no way that they could take a taxi and visit other places in Goa.” Similarly, two hours after the strike was called off, a manager from a prominent resort in Candolim, said, “I just received a call from a guest. He was calling me from the airport and said that no taxi driver is willing to take him from the airport to Candolim. He was told that taxi would drop him to Panaji from where he would have to take a bus.” This clearly shows that several taxi drivers were scared to come to the beach-belt of North Goa even after the strike was called off. Tourists who were arriving in Goa were particularly shocked as they weren t told, in most cases, about the taxi strike. A tourist from Amritsar in Punjab who had just arrived at Calangute said, “I just have to go to the resort, which is a mere two kilometers from Calangute and I was having a tough time in getting a taxi. I finally convinced a taxi-driver to take me to the resort for an astronomical sum of Rs 300.”
