MAJORITY OF PRIVATE CARS OPERATING WITHIN CHANGLANG DISTRICT AS COMMERCIAL TAXIS ARE ILLEGAL?
Staff Reporter
Jairampur, Nov 01:
According to the information shared by DTO Changlang, a private car cannot play as a commercial taxi without procuring a taxi permit.
There are certain criteria to fulfill before plying as taxi, the DTO said adding that only procuring the permit is not enough, the vehicle owners will have to register as commercial vehicle while obtaining registration and insurance.
The annual fee of taxi permit in Changlang district is Rs 1800, the DTO said. The DTO also pointed a drawback in the local taxi permit that the operational is very limited, one can ply within the district only.
The local taxi permit and the tourist vehicle permit is two different entity. The former is issued by district DTO and the later is issued by State Transport Authority.
One can directly obtain the taxi permit from Changlang DTO office whereas for tourist vehicle permit one has to apply through Deputry Commissioner to State Transport Authority.
As per the rules, following the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989, Tourist Vehicle Permit are granted to owners whose vehicles are used for tourism purposes.
The permit limits the journey of the vehicle within the home state and it can only remain outside the home state for a period not longer than three months.
In the meantime, despite being easy to obtain taxi permit, nearly all the taxis plying within Changlang district is operating without the required documents.
In such backdrop, it can be said that all those private cars operating in Changlang district are illegal except some of the vehicles operating within the district headquarter.
In the district HQ nearly all the commercial vehicle has obtained the permit as we have personally pursued the vehicle owners, the DTO disclosed. But when inquired about rest of the district he agreed that they are operating without the permit.
As of now, in rest of the district they don't have the legal status to operate as commercial taxi. Despite operating illegally, they have the temerity to charge exorbitant fares from the poor passengers as there is no mechanism in place to monitor or take action against such blunt illegality.
Reportedly, the local administration are not intervening as it had designated department to deal with the issue. They can only forward the complaint letter to the appropriate authority regarding the illegal taxis and their exorbitant fares.
Surprisingly enough, there is no record of the concerned department revising the taxi fare of the district in recent years.
When inquired the DTO reluctantly agreed that no such act has been initiated or enacted to fix the taxi fare of the district so far.
Without the intervention of DTO Changlang and stern directives it is very unlikely to see these illegal taxis procuring permit and charging logical fares from the poor passengers.
For the benefit of the local public, DTO Changlang has to revise all the taxi fare on priority basis and stop the looting by making taxi permit compulsory.