Byvishwas dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 14: Though the rape of a woman in Delhi by a Uber cab driver has found an echo in every major city in the country, Bhubaneswar seems to be deaf. For, the Commissionerate Police (CP) is yet to start verification of taxi drivers operating from Biju Patnaik International Airport.
Not a single taxi driver of the two firms operating from the airport has got the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the CP. The city police have admitted that the process of identifying drivers is yet to begin as they believe auto-rickshaw is the lifeline of Bhubaneswar, not the cabs.
Over 2,000 passengers arrive and depart from the city airport every day. At present, 19 daily scheduled flights of IndiGo, GoAir and Air India touch Bhubaneswar. Though a good number of the passengers use taxi services, neither the police nor the Airports Authority of India (AAI) nor the Regional Transport Authority (RTO) thought of making taxi driver ID mandatory.
When asked, deputy police commissioner (DCP) Satyabrata Bhoi said in a matter-of-fact way, “taxi drivers are not being verified by the police due to other works.”
He added: “The Commissionerate Police is currently busy in identifying and checking veracity of auto-rickshaw drivers’ documents to strengthen pink auto service in the city. We are not verifying whether any taxi driver has criminal antecedents or not.”
The two taxi services operating from the airport — Carzonrent and Orissa Taxi – which bagged contracts from the AAI run together 75 cabs. However, none of them have got permits to operate taxis from the airport to different locations in the city as they claim they possess permits for individual taxis from the RTO.
“We are not radio taxi service due to which we are not bound to get any specific permit from RTO. An annual contract fee of `1.63 lakh is being paid to AAI to operate taxis from airport,” Carzonrent’s Biju Senapati told Orissa POST.
Senapati claimed that they are operating 55 taxis from the airport but do not have any state government approved fare structure.
Meanwhile, owner of Orissa Taxi, Sukar Das Bawa, said that he has asked his drivers to produce police verification certificates within ten days. Airport director Sharad Kumar said it is the prerogative of police and RTO to verify drivers’ previous records.