Mumbai: A week after the RTO’s crackdown drive on Ola and Uber for not having proper permits, the former has had to bring the drive to a halt after a Bombay high court order.
The RTO had asked both Ola and Uber to register their service under the Maharashtra City Taxi Scheme, 2017 that requires the two cab giants to register themselves under the aggregator license. This registration process is completed only if the aggregator stops the current model of surge pricing — which was the most contentious issue between the state and the app-based service providers.
Even though the RTO had begun the process of registration for these aggregators, only a handful of the cabbies themselves approached the officials to complete the process. On June 23 the RTO began cracking the whip on drivers of the popular taxi apps and asked the drivers, who hadn’t registered.
This, in turn, spurred Uber — the popular taxi app, to file asking for a relief. This came on the bases that the Khatua Committee, which has been tasked with deciding the new fare and the report for the same, has not come out with one yet. An official from the RTO said, “The aggregators are merely using this time to delay the procedure of submitting the needful details.”
Taxi Scheme
In order to even the playing field, the scheme will take away the surge-pricing seen during peak hours. The scheme will bring the fare structure of all under the RTO’s ambit. The scheme also provides a two-month period to kaali-peeli taxi drivers to temporarily shift to app-based taxis like Ola and Uber and switch back to good old kaali-peeli if they are unhappy with the service.
