Mumbai, January 21
A day after the Maharashtra government made it mandatory for taxi drivers to possess working knowledge of Marathi to obtain permits, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today bowed to protests and promised to modify the rules.
“The cabinet went by the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Rules framed in 1989, as per which a person applying for a taxi permit must possess 15 years of domicile in Maharashtra and working knowledge of local language. The language could be Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati…” Chavan clarified.
The cabinet’s decision yesterday to make it compulsory for those applying for new taxi permits to take Marathi language tests caused a furore across the country. The majority of taxi drivers in Mumbai and neighbouring cities hail from north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and do not know Marathi.
Chavan’s climbdown has predictably drawn the ire of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. “We will not allow any outsider to be given taxi permits… Mumbai is not a dharamshala for north Indians,” MNS chief Raj Thackeray declared.
Hitting out at Chavan for his climbdown, Raj said: “Why make promises that cannot be delivered.”
Hours before Chavan's announcement, the Mumbai Taxi Mens' Union announced that it was planning to move the Bombay High Court seeking time for taxi drivers to learn Marathi. “It is an undemocratic order and taxi drivers do not accept it,” union leader AL Quadros said. The union warned that taxi drivers in the city would go on strike if the state government went ahead with the move.
