Taxi stand operators resent MC decision

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 25

In a sudden move against encroachments, the Municipal Corporation (MC) recently took the decision to issue a monthly challan slip of Rs 3,000 to every illegal taxi stand operator in the city.

Although the decision received a positive response from many commuters, taxi stand operators seemed unhappy with this ruling and termed it an unfair decision.

The MC Tehbazari superintendent Mandeep Singh said currently more than 100 illegal taxi stands were running in the district and no regulatary process had been established to prevent these from utilising the public space. Therefore, this amount would be charged as composition fees and if any operator fails to pay it, he would be removed from the MC land.

Sources, meanwhile, said the MC was going through a huge financial loss. Consequently, this charging of revenue would annually generate more than Rs 50 lakh for the civic body.

Speaking against the decision, many taxi stand operators said this was an unfair judgement, as we hardly made enough money to meet the expenses of our families.

Pawan Kumar, a taxi stand operator, said, “We barely use the MC land to park our vehicles and considering the revenue fees, it’s unaffordable for us. If it was made compulsory, we will vacate the space.”

Moreover, no regular checks on encroachments are conducted by officials as several taxi owners come back to the encroachment site after MC officials leave the encroached site.

In order to tell the superintendent to withdraw his orders, the taxi union head at Namdev Chowk, Dharampal Singh, who is running the Jalandhar city taxi stand, said, we would visit the MC house and request the Mayor to withdraw the proposal. We are ready to pay challans only if the revenue taken by the MC would be utilised for the development of the area occupied by the taxi stands.