Goa govt threatens to invoke ESMA, taxi unions refuse to budge

The Goa government on Sunday asked striking tourist taxi operators to rejoin work or face action under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). Tourist taxis are off the road in the state since August 2 in protest against the operation of Goa Miles, an app-based cab service backed by the state-run Goa Tourism Development Corporation.

Taxi unions, however, said they would wait for the government to respond positively to their demand till Wednesday, after which they themselves would come forward and relinquish their permits. State Director of Transport Rajan Satardekar on Sunday issued a public notice asking drivers to resume service or face action under ESMA.

Under ESMA, he said, permits of taxis which fail to rejoin work will be cancelled, and the driver disqualified from applying for a fresh one, and subsidies on purchase of vehicles, fuel etc would be withdrawn. "The government will also prosecute them under section 4 of ESMA, which is punishable with imprisonment of six months," he added.

However, agitating tourist taxi unions hardened their stand threatening to surrender their permits on Thursday if their demand to scrap Goa Miles was not accepted by the government. In a show of strength, over 1,000 taxi operators met at Karmali, 10 kilometres from here, and said they would continue the agitation.

At the meet, All Goa Taxi Association president Chetan Kamat said they would wait till Wednesday for the government's response. "If the state government does not scrap Goa Miles, on Thursday all 26,000 tourist taxi operators will surrender their permits to the transport department. We won't give in to the threat of permit cancellation by the government," Kamat claimed.

Union leader Laxman Bappa Korgaonkar said they would not allow the state to issue fresh permits after they surrender theirs..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)