Taxi: Refusal to No-Refusal to Refusal!!

A taxicab, also known as a taxi or a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice. This differs from other modes of public transport where the pick-up and drop-off locations are determined by the service provider, not by the passenger, although demand responsive transport and share taxis provide a hybrid bus/taxi mode.

Harry Nathaniel Allen of The New York Taxicab Co., who imported the first 600 gas-powered New York taxicabs from France in 1907, coined the word "taxicab" as a contraction of "taximeter cabriolet". "Taximeter" is an adaptation of the French word taximètre, coined from Medieval Latin taxa, which means tax or charge, together with meter from the Greek metron (μέτρον) meaning measure. A "cabriolet" is a type of horse-drawn carriage, from the French word "cabrioler" ("leap, caper"), from Italian "capriolare" ("to jump"), from Latin "capreolus" ("roebuck", "wild goat").

There are four distinct forms of taxicab, which can be identified by slightly differing terms in different countries:

·         Hackney carriages, also known as public hire, hailed or street taxis, licensed for hailing throughout communities

·         Private hire vehicles, also known as minicabs or private hire taxis, licensed for pre-booking only

·         Taxibuses, also known as jitneys, operating on pre-set routes typified by multiple stops and multiple independent passengers

·         Limousines, specialized vehicle licensed for operation by pre-booking

Although types of vehicles and methods of regulation, hiring, dispatching, and negotiating payment differ significantly from country to country, many common characteristics exist.

At Kolkata, the metered-cabs are mostly of the brand "Ambassador" manufactured by Hindustan Motors (now out of production). Once in a while, one or two Maruti Omnis, and Tata Indigo can be seen painted in yellow. During 2000s, air-conditioned cabs (known as "Blue-Arrow") and maroon cabs (running on compressed natural gas) were introduced. The meters - though digital - were generally out-of-date and there was a conversion chart to refer to while converting the meter-reading to the actual fare. In 2008, ORIX Auto Infrastructure Services Ltd. introduced an air-conditioned Radio Taxi service in Kolkata with the name 'Kolkata Cab' with fleets consisting of Indigo Marina only, which gained popularity among the city dwellers because it had comfortable seats, GPS monitoring, digital tamper-proof meters, receipt printers and lost-and-found facilities. Mega Cabs also provided same facilities. Some other prospective Radio Taxis rolled into the city – Fast Track, Easy Cabs and Meru Cabs, which quickly gained acceptance due to strikes by the taxi unions.

From December 2013, it was made mandatory, all taxis in Kolkata should have a calibrated electronic meter, where the passenger has to pay the exact value flashed on the meter. The minimum value is Rs.25 for first 2 km. This value gets flashed on the meter when one hires a cab. The yellow cabs are all non air conditioned and can be identified by its yellow livery and a glow light on top referring as taxi

Though the taxi service at Kolkata has improved a lot over the years, refusal and sudden strikes called by Taxi Unions are real headache for commuters. This had been a major problem since the Left regime. It was in 1990s, Asim Dasgupta, the then Finance Minister of state took this as a challenge and he himself led a crack-down operation on Taxi Refusal and Traffic safety at Kolkata.  Dasgupta spent several hours every morning for a fortnight assisting cops in the city to direct traffic and enforce road safety norms. It surprised many during those days as Dasgupta took this initiative despite the state having a Transport Minister of independent charge.

With the Maa-Maati-Manush government swinging into action on May 2011 with overwhelming majority, they started taking pro-Manush (pro-people) steps. Since for a very long time people in Kolkata were facing refusal and overcharging issues, the Maa-Maati-Manushgovernment gave priority to this issue. From December 2013, Kolkata has been gifted with a new fleet of No Refusal taxis. Most of these taxis are air conditioned (except the last produced batch of Ambassador) and are in white livery with a blue strip and AC taxi/taxi mentioned on front left door. The fare is same as in that of yellow taxis (same rate as flashed on the meter), except if driven with AC turned on, the passenger has to pay 25% on the displayed fare. So if the displayed fare is 100, the rate would be 125. The fleet includes Maruti Dzire, Tata Indigo CS, Tata Manza, Toyota Etios, Ford Fiesta, Mahindra Verito and the last production batch of Ambassador. All cars are first hand and are having electronic meter with a led display showing hired/for hire, GPS, FM radio. Moreover, a fine of Rs 3000 will be slapped if a passenger is refused by a Taxi. The Maa-Maati-Manush government made Taxi commuters happy. So far, So good!

The real story behind Maa-Maati-Manush government coming to power in 2011, slowly became evident with Saradha scam surfacing. Thanks of Pradesh Congress leader Mr Abdul Mannan for his initiative to file a PIL and CPI(M) leader Adv Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee for pleading the PIL,for CBI enquiry of Saradha Scam, at Supreme Court. The nexus of MPs and Minister of the Maa-Maati-Manush political party and Saradha owner started getting exposed with CBI enquiry. The support of people towards Maa-Maati-Manush political party got hugely damaged by this and people started moving away from Maa-Maati-Manush political party to support another political party. Needless to say, that the other political party is Bharatiya Janata Party, as people of West Bengal have already tested and tried the INC & the Left combine earlier and Maa-Maati-Manush political party now and all three have miserably failed. 

Ms Mamata Banerjee,with her transport minister, Madan Mitra, in jail in the SaradhaScam for the last two months, set out on Feb 12^th, 2015 to solve the problem that had been plaguing Mitra for months before his arrest: frequent taxi strikes in Kolkata. The minister often heckled by section of Taxi communities. She even asked her All India! (thought party doesn’t exist in any other state) General secretary of the party to help Transport Minister, that too didn’t work.

Taxi Union primarily in Bengal led by 2 political parties,CPM & TMC. The ruling party wanted some sort of political relation with the party which has ruled 34 years in Bengal,i.e CPM. When She saw “Fish Fry” diplomacy with CPM gone badly to the grassroot of of both parties, She wanted another way of building relationship with CPM through Taxi. When Fuel prices going down considerably,TMC arranged further strike with CPM for increasing Taxi fare,to neutralize demand for decreasing fare. That too went very badly with all cross section of passengers. Rulers wanted Taxi workers in her time of distress so put another gamble to please Taxi owners & drivers. The West Bengal chief minister slashed the fine imposed on taxis for refusing passengers from Rs. 3000 to Rs. 100. The contentious Rs. 3000 fine had led to at least a dozen taxi strikes and protests last year.The plan now is, for the first complaint of refusal, a taxi driver will be fined Rs. 100, for the second refusal, Rs. 200, for the third refusal, Rs. 300, for the fourth and fifth refusal, Rs. 500, and for further complaints, Rs. 1000. She, however, was less categorical about late night refusals. Mamata Banerjee also said taxi drivers should show their humane face and not refuse passengers. Ms Banerjee forgot the passengers, who brought her into power. Passengers, plagued by frequent taxi refusals, are also wondering of Ms Banerjee's decision will reduce the taxi refusals or encourage taxi drivers to say no more often.

This is wooing the taxi drivers before civic election as there are almost 40,000 taxis in the city. But She forgot that depending on Taxi community she can not win Kolkata Corporation election whatever muscle they use. Number of commuters are in much higher numbers than owners & drivers. Unless her good sense prevails Commuters will drive them away. Muscle, donation to clubs & Imams & lastly appeasing ill headed Taxi community will only jeopardise their chances of winning any number of significant seats.

Sudden shift of focus of Maa-Maati-Manush government from Manush (people) to a selected group of Manush – taxi drivers, depicts its withering ground in WB politics as appeasement is the refuge taken by weak.