Private taxi unions running illegally at UT railway station

Over 50 taxis parked at the Chandigarh railway station are running without any permits and valid licenses since 2001. Surprisingly, railway authorities have never taken note of the same.

Therefore, with no permission and control on rates, these taxi associations have reportedly been charging exorbitant rates ranging from rs 800 to rs 1,000 from the customers even for shorter distances.

Following complaints from the registered auto union, the government railway police (GRP) on Sunday had warned taxi associations to not enter railway premises. The divisional commercial manager (DCM) instructed the GRP to take strict action against taxi unions if they continued to park vehicles illegally in railway premises, where there is no permission to park any taxis.

GRP station house officer (SHO) Urmila said, “The railways are at fault for granting permission to park taxis where autos and other cars are parked. We have our own pre-paid auto booth that remain open for 24/7 for the convenience of passengers. These taxi unions have been standing in front of the booth and to to convince passengers to hire their taxis over rates which aren’t regulated.”

Senior DCM Praveen G Dwivedi said, “Railways have never granted permission to taxi unions to park their taxis at the station. Even if they are handing out receipts to customers, it is illegal. We have sent our team to look into the matter.”

General secretary of Ekta Taxi union Manjeet Kumar said, “We had received permission and licenses to run our taxis and also to park them from the railways itself in 1996 till 2001. We applied for a renewal of licenses, but the reply has been pending since the DRM office.

We are driving without licenses since then but are paying ` 450 every month to a private parking contractor of the railways.”