Karnataka: Transport Minister Defends Bike Taxi Crackdown Amidst HC Ban | Mobility Information
Bengaluru: Karnataka Minister for Transport Ramalinga Reddy has defended the crackdown on bike taxis working within the state following a Excessive Courtroom order, stating that they’re working bike taxis within the title of courier and parcel providers, so motion shall be taken.
Talking to the media on Tuesday, Minister Reddy acknowledged, “Bike taxis are banned by the Excessive Courtroom. We’ve got submitted the state authorities’s stand on this matter to the courtroom. Officers are taking motion as a result of bike taxis are working beneath the pretext of providing courier and parcel providers.”
He stated that the Excessive Courtroom had given six weeks to halt bike taxi providers. “That interval has expired, and our officers are initiating motion on this regard,” he stated.
Karnataka Transport and police authorities launched a crackdown on bike taxi providers in Bengaluru and different district headquarters on Monday, appearing on a directive from the excessive courtroom. On Monday alone, RTO officers in Bengaluru seized 103 bike taxis.
In regards to the drive in opposition to bike taxis, RTO Further Commissioner Mallikarjuna acknowledged that the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom had already declared bike taxi providers unlawful, clearly stating that no provision within the legislation permits their operation.
“We began the crackdown on bike taxis. Two-wheelers with white license plates can’t be used for industrial functions. Together with white-plate two-wheelers, white-plate automobiles are additionally not allowed for industrial functions,” he acknowledged.
The Transport Division had not allowed bike taxi providers beforehand, and there’s no authorized provision for them. He warned that if the Excessive Courtroom order is not adopted, the crackdown will proceed.
In the meantime, the Namma Bike Taxi Affiliation has written to the Chief of the Opposition within the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, searching for their pressing intervention to revoke the ban.
The letter underlines the livelihood disaster that would hit over one lakh bike taxi riders throughout the state.
Fashionable app-based aggregators have already curtailed their providers in Karnataka, limiting operations to parcel deliveries.
The crackdown follows the excessive courtroom choice final Friday, which declined to remain a single-judge bench order directing the cessation of motorcycle taxi providers. A division bench, headed by Appearing Chief Justice V. Kameshwara Rao and Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar, prolonged the deadline for halting providers to June 15 and posted the matter for additional listening to on June 24.
The sooner order, issued on April 2 by Justice B. Shyam Prasad, held that bike taxi aggregators can not function in Karnataka until the state notifies pointers beneath Part 3 of the Motor Autos Act, 1988, and frames the required guidelines.
The order got here in response to petitions by numerous firms, which sought extra time to wind down providers.
