Around 17,000 tourist taxis stayed off the road in Goa for the second consecutive day on Saturday after the State government failed to give operators a concrete assurance on their demand of exempting them from installing speed governors.
The Goa tourist taxi operators’ union on Saturday also resolved to extend their strike to Sunday accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government of not making attempts to engage them in a dialogue.
A spokesperson of the union said, “We are not going to give up. The strike will continue until the State government agrees to our demands.”
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has refused to give in to the operators’demand and said installation of speed governors was mandatory under Central law and the State has no say in its implementation. He said the rule was mandated by a Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety.
Mr. Parrikar said that taxis operating without speed governors would be declared unfit after February 24. Mr. Parrikar said, “We gave them six months to implement the law. Now the State government can’t do anything about speed governors.”
Mr. Parrikar said, “Why do only taxi operators in Goa have a problem with speed governors, when taxi operators in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi do not.”
Mr. Parrikar said of the 17,000 taxis in the State, more than 4,000 have already installed the speed governors.
The strike has left tourists stranded at transit points in the State, which is witnessing peak tourist arrivals.
