Cab owners, app-cab companies must have an agreement: Min
Kolkata: The state Transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty on Saturday said that the cab owners and the app-cab companies should have an agreement with terms decided between them while ensuring passenger comfort and service as well as the finances of drivers.
“We have seen that there is no agreement between cab owners and app-cab companies. We have asked them to get the agreements done. If this happens then a lot of the problems currently arising can be sorted,” Chakraborty said while reiterating that the app cab companies will have to follow the guidelines.
Issues have been raised by both cab owners and passengers on certain aspects of the app-cab companies’ operations, including minimum fare per kilometre, customer service and charging of increased fares from customers.
The Online Cab Operators Guild’s general secretary Indranil Banerjee had also raised the issue of the IDs being blocked by the app-cab companies. According to him, Uber has blocked 154 IDs and Ola has blocked 42 IDs.
The meeting between the state Transport department, app-cab companies and online cab operators associations had taken place earlier. The department, at the time, had warned the app-cab companies to follow the guidelines or else action would be taken.
Chakraborty, after his meeting with the online app cab operators at Maidan Tent on Saturday, said that these are routine meetings and more will take place in future to ensure that app-cab companies, plying in Kolkata and other parts of Bengal, follow the guidelines set by the state. “If they don’t follow these guidelines, we will issue show cause and impose fines, and take strict action against them. This government will not tolerate passenger harassment,” the minister said sternly.
He also said that app-cab companies like Ola and Uber have registered with the department and obtained licences to operate, however, there are many app-cabs which have not registered or taken licences. “Everyone will have to come under a system,” he stressed.
