Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's efforts to bring together Goa's warring private taxi operators and the promoters of Goamiles, a government-endorsed app-based cab aggregator service, proved inconclusive after the private taxi owners' associations demanded that Goamiles should completely stop operations in the coastal state.
Private taxi operators, some of whom have been accused of heckling and in some cases assaulting Goamiles taxi drivers in the recent past, have demanded that the Chief Minister should immediately ban the cab aggregator service from picking up passengers at key entry points in the state like airports, railway and bus stations.
"We had a discussions between the two groups of taxi operators. The private taxi operators insist that Goamiles services should stop. However, I have conveyed to them that the service is of benefit to the state and will not be halted," Sawant told reporters after the meeting at the state Secretariat.