Govt forms panel to address concerns of taxi associations

SHILLONG, Sep 25: The state government has constituted a committee headed by the Director of Tourism and comprising members from the Tourism, Law, Police departments, district administration and stakeholders to resolve the issue flagged by the tourist taxi drivers.
Informing that he has received a letter from the Taxi association highlighting their concerns, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said, “We have asked the Director of Tourism to set up a committee with members from the departments concerned and more importantly the stakeholders themselves to come up with a comprehensive solution.”
He further informed that the committee has been formed and notified and the Tourism Director will add members from the taxi association and drivers themselves.
According to him, the stakeholders will be brought on board to find out the exact issues, proposals, suggestions, solutions and possible fallout of any action taken.
“We will come out with a decision once we are able to assess the situation in a detailed manner and give a fair chance to all the stakeholders to express their concerns on this issue,” he said.
“I am hopeful that the committee will very shortly meet everybody and submit a report to us and post that I will call the different stakeholders to discuss the way forward,” he added.
It may be mentioned that the All Assam United Motor Transport Association has threatened to stop plying of commercial vehicles, carrying daily essentials from Assam, from entering Meghalaya, in the wake of a recent ultimatum issued by the All Khasi Meghalaya Tourist Taxi Association to the Meghalaya government to address their demands for restricting tourist vehicles from Assam and other states from ferrying passengers to tourist spots in Meghalaya.