K'taka govt warns cab aggregators to drop autorickshaw services

BENGALURU: With taxi aggregators including Ola and Uber unrelenting to the Karnataka government's direction to stop autorickshaw services under its domain with immediate effect, the state transport department has warned that the enforcement will start from Monday.

The state government had on Thursday issued a notice to Ola, Uber and other taxi aggregators for violating the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rule 2016 by illegally operating autorickshaws and overcharging from the customers.

However, the cab aggregators have shown no sign of falling in line with the government order.

''We had given them three days to stop their services. We also had asked them in our notice to furnish details if they have any to us in this duration. They have not responded yet. So, the enforcement will start from tomorrow,'' a senior transport department official told PTI.

On Sunday as well, the autorickshaw services were operating and the charges remained exorbitant compared to the meter-based regular charges.

An autorickshaw driver Manjunath, who is associated with a cab aggregator firm, said he would like to see the government taking action.

''We had seen a similar notice served to the cab aggregators just before the elections but no action was taken again. Now once again when the assembly elections are nearing, similar notice has been served. I want to see the government taking action,'' he said.