Team Herald
PANJIM: The taxi operators from Pernem taluka with the support of North Goa and South Goa Taxi Associations are adamant to continue the protest even as the taxi strike continued for the third day on Saturday, in spite of heavy rain.
The protesting taxi operators clearly aren’t any heed to organisations and tourism stakeholders like the TTAG and refusing to look beyond their specific interests at this point
The taxi operators on Saturday alleged that the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s statement of ‘politicisation of the protest’ and MLAs statement of outsiders and Pednekars was uncalled for. They further alleged that the GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), which is managing the Mopa airport, was still charging Rs 500 for parking.
On August 19, they had ‘served 48-hour ultimatum’ to the State government to settle their demand to allot them a counter at the Mopa Greenfield airport and to disband the counter allotted to the app-based taxi aggregator. They said that a large number of taxi operators, particularly both the district taxi associations, had extended their support to them.
Another taxi operator Sunil Naik charged that Mopa airport promoter GMR charged Rs 500 for the parking fee instead of Rs 80 on Saturday. This shows that the GMR’s claim that it had rolled back the parking fee for taxi to Rs 80 was false and the airport promoter was even misguiding the Chief Minister.
Yogesh Naik, a taxi operator from Pernem, said that many taxi operators were land losers for the Mopa airport and they were now trying to earn their livelihood. “We have been fighting for our demands for the last five to six years,” he said, demanding that the government find a permanent solution by immediately allotting a taxi counter to them and stop the app-based taxi service counter at the Mopa airport.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has convened a meeting with the taxi operators from Pernem taluka in the Mantralaya, Porvorim on Monday, August 26 morning, to discuss their six demands.
The Pernem taxi operators said they would await the outcome of the meeting with the Chief Minister scheduled on Monday.