Operators reject minister’s infighting remark in Assembly, seek apology
PANAJI
Taxi associations boycotted the scheduled meeting by the Directorate of Transport on the proposed digital taxi policy, escalating tensions with Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho and demanding an apology over his remarks in the Legislative Assembly.
Union leaders said they would attend discussions only if the government issued a formal invitation while claiming they were not officially informed about the meeting on Monday.
“Let them call the meeting officially. We have not received any communication from the government regarding today’s meeting,” a taxi union leader told reporters outside the department office, where police were deployed.
The boycott came amid rising tensions over remarks made by Godinho in the Assembly earlier in the day, where he claimed taxi operators had nearly come to blows during a meeting with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on March 5.
The leaders strongly rejected the claim, describing it as “false and unacceptable” and demanding that the minister apologise.
“This is nothing but an attempt to mislead the people into believing that we are not united. How can the minister make such a false statement on the floor of the House? He should apologise,” one of the leaders said.
The unions also accused the government of delaying decisions as elections draw closer.
“Since elections are approaching, the government is playing tricks with the taxi related matters,” another leader said, alleging that the authorities were trying to protect the interests of the app-based taxi service GoaMiles.
While the associations said they supported transparency in the sector, they reiterated their opposition to app-based taxi aggregators and questioned how many locals were employed by such platforms.
“The government wants to fill the pockets of GoaMiles... We are not against transparency, but we oppose app-based taxi systems that threaten the livelihood of local taxi operators,” one of them said.
