Karmali (Old Goa): Agitating tourist Taxi unions in Goa on Sunday threatened to surrender their permits to State Transport Department on Thursday, if their demand to scrap app-based cab company is not met by the government.
More than one thousand taxi operators gathered at Karmali village, 10 kms away from here, as a show of strength condemning the action of state government to allow app-based cab operator ‘Goa Miles.’
State chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday had ruled out possibility of scrapping Goa Miles, while asking the tourist taxi operators to join the app-based service or have their similar arrangements on the same lines.
The tourist taxi operators have kept their vehicles off the road since August 2, following which state transport department has warned them of cancellation of their permits and blacklisting them, if they continue their strike.
After the meeting on Sunday at Karmali, All Goa Taxi Association President Chetan Kamat said that the tourist taxi operators will wait till Wednesday for the government to scrap Goa Miles.
“If state government fails to do so, on Thursday, all around 26,000 tourist taxi operators will stand in a queue in front of state transport department in Panaji and surrender their permits,” he said.
Kamat said that they will not bow down to the threat of state government to cancel their permits. “No need for state government to cancel the permits, we will surrender them on our own in a peaceful manner,” he said.
A taxi union leader Laxman Bappa Korgaonkar told mediapersons that after surrendering of permits, the tourist taxi operators will not allow the state government to give any fresh permits to anyone.
