Apart from the bus station, there is a rush of passengers at the taxi stands to go home on Diwali 2022. Due to lack of adequate arrangement of roadways buses for the passengers going to the hilly areas, they have to resort to taxis. Where they have to pay double the fare than the roadways bus.
With the gathering of passengers, the arbitrariness of taxi drivers has also started. There are no seats in the buses. Additional buses have not been operated by the Transport Corporation for the mountain. Taxi drivers are taking advantage of this. Commuters have to pay Rs 115 more in taxis to go to Nainital, while those going to Almora, Bageshwar, Tanakpur-Champawat, Pithoragarh have to pay two to three hundred rupees more.
Fearless Driver
On the one hand, where the taxi union has fixed the fare for the passengers, the rookie taxi drivers have openly looted. Passengers going to the taxi stand after leaving the roadways are being stopped in the middle of the way by the rookie drivers. Arbitrary rent is being demanded from them after sitting in the vehicle.
There was a lack of police personnel and administration officials to take action against illegal rent collectors. Taxi drivers are parking their vehicles wherever they want. When a person living near the Kotwali protested against parking taxis, the taxi drivers got entangled with them. After which the police, who reached the spot, just cut the challan and ended it. Even after this, the process of seating the passengers continued.
14 additional buses for Delhi and Dehradun
On Friday, the Transport Corporation operated 14 additional buses in view of the rush of passengers. Of these, 12 buses were sent to Delhi and 2 buses to Dehradun. ARM Surendra Bisht said that on Friday, the crowd of passengers going to Delhi and Dehradun was very high. Due to this 14 buses were operated. Additional buses have not been operated for hilly districts.
Roadways fare is being charged fixed for taxi,
Destination – Roadways Fare – Fix Taxi – Being Charged
Almora 170 350 450-500
Pithoragarh 435 700 800-900
Ranikhet 160 350 400-450
Nainital 85 180 250-300
Bageshwar 295 600 700-750
I reached the bus station at 9 in the morning, waited half an hour to go to Almora. Just didn’t get it. You have to leave by paying Rs 400 in taxi. – Mahendra Bisht, resident of Almora
A fare of Rs 900 is being sought to go to Pithoragarh. Barely ready to take in 800. Even after this, it has been kept sitting in the vehicle for half an hour. – Ravindra Pant, resident of Pithoragarh
Some taxi drivers are charging exorbitant fares. Complaints have been made to the administration many times, but no action is taken. If this continues, then the movement will be forced.
