Strike continued, no tourist taxis on road for two more days
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 11 April 2016 21:56 IST
It was just not one day, Goa will run without tourist taxis for two more days now, after a total Taxi Bandh today.
As a result, tariff of black and white taxis as well as hired motorcycles doubled while the state government made arrangement of buses only from Dabolim airport.
As the BJP government has not responded positively to the strike, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo of the ruling party has now taken initiative to mediate.
In response to the imposition of ESMA to break the taxi operators’ strike, the taxi operators today held a rally from Calangute to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s Mandrem constituency, culminating it into a public meeting at Azad Maidan in Panaji.
The tourist taxi operators are demanding total ban on rent-a-car and rent-a-bike, claiming that they are ruining taxi business in Goa.
CM Parsekar has appealed to the taxi operators to withdraw the strike and come to sit across the table instead of harassing the tourists.
Making it a political issue, taxi operators have also threatened the CM that they are the voters in Goa and not the tourists.
Since Parsekar has not called the striking taxi operators for talks, they have now decided to continue their strike for two more days.
Goa has around 17,000 white tourist taxis, which is the prime source of transport for the tourists at any hour of the day or night.
