Stir from Tuesday if GoaMiles is not scrapped by Monday: Cabbies

PANAJI: If the government fails to outline a roadmap to scrap GoaMiles by Monday, all taxi owners with their families will launch an agitation at Azad Maidan on Tuesday, the Association of Tourist Taxi Owners Goa (ATTOG) said on Friday.
“We had a meeting scheduled with the chief minister, but we were told that the meeting was postponed to Monday,” ATTOG president Chetan Kamat told reporters. “I don’t know what talks will be held because our demands have not changed. CM has assured to solve the problem on Monday,” he said.
Sawant along with ports minister Michael Lobo had scheduled a meeting with ATTOG at Porvorim, but it was cancelled due to the monsoon assembly commitments.
Sawant, however, briefly met ATTOG members on Friday, during which he informed them that the meeting had been rescheduled for Monday 5pm.
“If we are not given an assurance on Monday that GoaMiles will be scrapped, we will start our agitation on Tuesday,” Kamat said.
ATTOG, which has the support of All Goa Yellow Black Taxi Association, wants the government to also subsidise 80% of the cost of the GPS-enabled digital meters that the transport department has made mandatory for all taxis.
“We remain firm that GoaMiles has to be scrapped. Nobody wants taxi-app services. If we don’t get a solution by Monday, then on Tuesday at 8am we will start our agitation,” Kamat said.