Maha govt to taxi owners: Submit driver database and safety plan immediately

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s transport department has asked private taxi aggregators to submit database of the drivers by Thursday afternoon and has asked them to submit a plan on passengers’ safety measures by 31 December.

The Transport Department also warned private taxi aggregators to implement a passenger safety plan by 15 January, 2015. On Wednesday, the transport department held a meeting with representatives of Uber, TaxiForSure, Meru, TabCab, Cabzo, Ola and Priyadarshani on the issue of passenger safety and security.

“I am not happy with the existing system of background verification of drivers by taxi operators. So, I have asked them to share the database with us by Thursday afternoon,” said Mahesh Zagade, Transport Commissioner of the Maharashtra government adding that background check of drivers had to be done on a regular basis in the larger interest of passenger safety.

Zagade asked taxi operators to submit a plan on passenger safety measures and emergency measures by month end. “The plan has to be implemented by 15 January next year. If they fail to implement the safety plan, we will suspend licenses of the drivers associated with these operators,” Zagde added.

He warned representatives that if an incident like the Delhi Uber cab rape occurs in Maharashtra, chairman, managing directors and senior official of the company would be made as co-accused in the cases. “They just can’t shrug off responsibility in such cases. We have made it very clear to them. There will be zero tolerance as far as the passengers’ safety is concerned and operators should adhere to the regulations,” warned Zagade.

Officials from the Transport Department said that provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and IT act would be invoked to take action against the operators. “Though there is no provision in the Motor Vehicle Act to take action against the web-based taxi services, we can invoke sections of the IPC and IT act to book them as co-accused,” said an official.

Operators have agreed to share the drivers’ database passenger safety plan with the Transport Department. “We are ready to share the database of drivers with them and also the passengers’ safety plan as asked by the transport department,” said Sanjay Pande, Mumbai head of TaxiForSure told Firstpost.