Local cabbies in the
city seem to have no
care about rules and no fear of authorities as they have increased the taxi fares on their own will without bothering to get necessary permission from the concerned authorities.
The cabbies have made it mandatory for all commuters to pay Rs 10 even if they travel a very short distance from say Jhalupara to Civil Hospital or from Bara Bazar to IGP Point.
Although the District Transport Office (DTO) has fixed taxi fares for each kilometer but hardly any cabbie seems to adhere to the Government rates. Even if some commuter argues and wants to pay the fare according to the rates fixed by the DTO, they are subjected to rude words and often humiliation by these unscrupulous cabbies.
Besides the arbitrary fare increase, these cabbies are also found to engage in overloading of passengers especially during the peak hours or during the night time when the frequency of the taxis decrease.
These cabbies always load six passengers for a single trip especially during the night time when traffic personnel go off duty.
An exasperated commuter said, “In the evening time they always put two passengers in front and four people on the back seat and ask everyone to adjust.”
“I don’t know what made the Government to allow four people to sit in the back seat of a small vehicle like a Maruti leading to severe discomfort for the passengers,” an elderly commuter said.
Another lady said that the situation becomes more uncomfortable when female passengers have to ‘adjust’ with males especially in the back seat.
Meanwhile, the traffic department has attributed the problem to the lack of cooperation from the commuters.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Traffic), Herbert Lyngdoh, said, “We are doing spot compounding but aggrieved commuters also need to complain to us and we assure that strictest action will be taken against the errant drivers.”
According to Lyngdoh, the Shillong Traffic police would take more stringent action in the coming days to ensure that no commuter is taken for a ride by the cabbies.
Meanwhile, passengers are only keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that the newly launched Shillong Supplementary Public Transport Service maxi taxis will provide them all the more relief and save them from the mean taxi drivers.