Panaji: Goa government on Sunday asked the striking tourist taxi operators to join the work with immediate effect or face the consequences under Essential Service Management Act (ESMA).
Several hundred tourist taxi operators have kept their vehicles off the road since August 2 after state government failed to adhere to their demand of scrapping app-based cab service ‘Goa Miles’.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday evening had said that the tourist taxi operators would have to either join Goa Miles or have their own app as a solution for the current impasse.
On Sunday, Director of Transport Rajan Satardekar issued public notice asking the tourist taxis to join back the work by 12 noon, or else face the action under ESMA.
He said that under ESMA, the permits of all the taxis which are kept off the road would be cancelled without further notice.
Satardekar also said that the permit holder shall be blacklisted and disqualified from applying further any fresh permit henceforth for any vehicle in the future.
“Government will also prosecute then under section 4 of ESMA which is punishable with imprisonment of six months,” he said.
Satardekar stated that the permit holders will be debarred from having any government incentives including subsidy for purchase of vehicles, fuel subsidy and insurance subsidy.
Meanwhile, state government has launched special helpline number for the tourists who are stranded due to taxi strike in their hotels or other tourist locations.
