by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Dec. 9
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The ban on Uber cab service in Delhi and similar action proposed in other Indian cities by the Union home minister Rajnath Singh was publicly opposed by surface transport & shipping minister Nitin Gadkari.
Gadkari disagreed with the decision to ban Uber cab services in the wake of the alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman in a taxi plying under it, saying banning the railways for train accidents, buses for bus accidents and taxi service for such incidents is not correct. Such a move could not be a solution," he added without blinking.
Surprisingly, Gadkari's reaction came on a day when Rajnath Singh made a detailed statement in the Rajya Sabha on the incident which rocked Delhi for 36 hours and tremours were felt across 200 cities in the world where Uber runs the tax service.
While Rajnath Singh declared that Uber violated norms of taxi operators and gave a detailed account of how the home ministry was proceeding in the matter by writing to states and Union territories to ban such illegal operations, Gadkari opposed the move.
Lokmat was the first to report the division within the Modi government on the issue and had published on Monday itself that parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu termed the banning of service a hasty decision.
Even finance minister Arun Jaitley expressed the view that the $41 billion Uber cab service company had been evolved from nowhere and efforts be made to correct the systems.
In fact, he told the Lok Sabha later in the day that Uber was even found to be violating the FEMA regulations as it was transferring funds abroad collected through credit cards from commuters without RBI permission.
It was only on December 1 this year that Uber took corrective steps on the strict instructions of the RBI.
Whatever be the outcome of ban on the Uber and other cab service providers, the incident highlighted massive loopholes in the capital city of India under the Union home ministry.
If the transport department under the Delhi government didn't act tough against the Uber when the company was not following the Motor Vehicles Act and checking antecedents of the drivers operating under Uber banner, the Delhi Police also played ball with the foreign company operating from San Francisco without even having an Indian call centre or contact number. The company had not even opened a helpline for commuters though it is operating in more than 30 cities of India.
Gadkari said that state governments have the right to take a decision in such matters. But lacunae in such systems should be plugged.
He said "As per a report, 30 per cent of the driving licences in the country are bogus... We are going to change the 1988 Motor Vehicles Act by which we will have a centre comprising all records of drivers. That would help solve the problem of accessing the accident and criminal records of drivers."
It is learnt that BJP leaders in Delhi were pressing the government for taking firm action against Uber as it had created waves in the city which is set to go to polls in early February. In all likelihood, the ban on Uber will continue at least for sometime.
Rajnath Singh has an added problem in hand as Delhi police is directly under him and also even the Lieutenant Governor and Delhi government, NDMC and other agencies report to him directly. By taking firm action, he is only trying to whether the storm outside North Block. Lokmat was the first to report the division within the Modi government on the issue and had published on Monday itself that parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu termed the banning of service a hasty decision.
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