Rupesh Samant

Panaji, Jun 15: After Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant refused to pay heed to the demands of tourist taxi operators to scrap App-based service, the taxi operators on Saturday said that they will protest in Panaji, coming week.

The tourist taxi operators have been opposing Goa Tourism Development Corporation Limited promoted App-based taxi service ‘Goa Miles’. Several police complaints have been registered against the tourist taxi operators following attack on the App-based taxi.

Sawant, last week, has warned the tourist taxi against the violence, and have urged them to join the App-based service.

“The tourist taxi operators will be holding silent protest in Panaji next week against the App-based service. There are 30,000 taxi operators who will be participating in the protest,” Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco told reporters after attending a meeting of taxi operators from across the Goa.

He said that the Taxi App is run by a private firm and not by State government. “If the App was run by State government then the taxi drivers would have joined it. But government is supporting the private firm at the cost of traditional taxi operators,” the MLA said.

Lourenco said that the protest is to grab attention of State government towards the problems faced by tourist taxi operators due to App-based service. He also said that the Taxi operators will intensify the protests, if government refuses to address their grievances.