Uber, Ola banned in Maharashtra; meanwhile Transport Commissioner asks taxi cos for 'safety plan'

MUMBAI: The rape of a woman in a Uber cab in Delhi might have stirred up the Union government which has invoked a ban on such web based services, however the ban has got lost in the bureaucratic maze in Maharashtra.

On Wednesday morning, SK Sharma, Transport secretary informed that a ban has been imposed on Uber and Ola after the central government invoked a ban on Taxi service companies that use web based applications.

However almost in a couple of hours, Transport Commissioner Mahesh held a meeting with Private Taxi service providers including Meru,Tabcab Uber, Ola and other Taxi services operating in the city. In the meeting Zagade asked them to prepare a safety plan and adhere to it by January 15 or risk a ban on their operations.

He warned that henceforth if a Delhi kind of incident happened in Mumbai then the General Managers of these Taxi service companies would be made a co-accussed in the case.

In the meeting Zagade asked the representatives of these taxi service companies to come up with an action plan on increasing safety measures to ensure passenger safety and prevent incidents like the one in Delhi. Zagade told the CEO’s/ Managers of these Taxi fleet companies that they would have to come up with new safety measures and submit it to his department by December 31 this year. Once approved the measures would be enforced by January 15th, 2015. If the measures were not implemented by January 15, next year then the Transport department would start suspending the licences of the Taxi drivers of the companies that don’t comply.

Later the operations of the Taxi fleet companies would also be stopped said Zagade in the meeting. He also asked the Taxi service providers to submit the database of all their Taxi drivers by Thursday. Zagade while speaking later to reporters who queried him about the ban said, “I don’t know about the ban, I have just returned to work as I was ill. The Nagpur session is on and hence I can’t comment on it.”

A Transport department officials however clarified that Zagade was ill and had just returned to work and was hence not aware of the ban on Uber and Ola. " The ban on Uber and Ola was enforced today, hence he was not aware of it. However even if Uber and Ola have been banned, today's meeting was still crucial as we needed to put these Taxi fleet companies at notice to enhance safety measures for their passengers."said a Transport department official.