A senior official said several app-based cab companies, including Ola and Uber, are not registered with the Delhi government’s transport department, but still they are running their taxis in the capital.
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“Some officials from Uber today met the Delhi Chief Minister at Delhi Secretariat and discussed a range of issues including surge pricing, diesel cars and permits”, an official said.
The government of Delhi has cracked down on surge pricing from Uber and local ride-hailing company Ola, forcing the startups to suspend the feature across the Indian city of almost 10 million people.
Gopal Rai, Delhi’s transport minister, tells The Wall Street Journal that 43 taxis were impounded on Monday for surge pricing, and Kerjiwal, in a tweet, said that the ban would be made permanent.
Terming the surge pricing by app-based cab operators like Ola and Uber as “daylight robbery”, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that the Delhi Government will not allow overcharging and blackmailing by cab operators in the city and the ban on “hiked” fare will continue even after the odd-even scheme.
Magic Sewa filed a petition against surge prices and compliance of government-notified fares. “This is open blackmailing n govt won’t let that happen”, he further tweeted. Autorickshaw drivers for long have been demanding ban on app-based taxi services claiming that that they are a threat to their livelihood.
However, a spokesperson of the Delhi government accused the cab services of non-cooperation, saying, “We have nothing against any private company”. Kejriwal also had choice words to describe surge pricing. Some taxis (are) saying they will not provide cabs if they are not allowed to loot. We will fix fares for them as we have done in the case of radio, economy cabs and black and yellow taxis.
The government announced on Wednesday that all app-based taxi aggregators will have to charge fixed fares under a new policy. “All app-based taxi services will be regulated”, Rai said.
However, he added that the state government was not against taxi aggregators and fully supported them as they provided an important service to the people but asserted that they had to follow the law and could not be exempted. “The overcharging violations do not apply to app-based taxi services as they are not registered with the government”.
The demand for taxis has shot up on account of the odd-even traffic scheme that started on April 15 and will run till April 30.
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Ola Shuttle customers need to use the coupon code ODDEVEN to get 100 per cent cash-back on their rides on April 22 and 29, Mr Sahni added.
