Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge on Thursday said that new guidelines have been issued for the allotment of tourist taxis at highly subsidised rates to unemployed youths from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, making the system more transparent.
One of the major changes made in the guidelines is reserving 10 per cent of the allotment to women and creating a ‘Karnataka Tourism’ branding for all the taxis so that they are not used for any purpose other than ferrying tourists. During a chat with The Hindu in Kalaburagi, Mr. Kharge said that as per the new guidelines, the age limit of beneficiaries has also been changed from 25 to 45. He said age and educational qualification of the applicant would be the main considerations — higher the age and educational qualification, higher the chance of allotment of taxis.
He said the decision to allot 10 per cent of the taxis to women would help in creating a federation of women drivers in the State who can even ferry women who work late at night. He added that based on the interest evinced by women drivers, the percentage could be increased to 15 per cent in the coming years.
