Chavan fails to sell decision on taxi permits

Mumbai/ Patna: Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has an excuse for making knowledge of Marathi must for renewing licences of taxis drivers: it was the rule.

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to give new taxi licenses to only those persons who are fluent in Marathi and have resided in the state for at least 15 years.

On Thursday, Chavan insisted the government’s decision was not related to any language. "The Cabinet has gone by the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles rules, which were framed in 1989. As per that rule, for a person to have a (taxi) permit, 15 years of domicile is compulsory,” he said.

“And the second rule says that for a taxi badge for a driver, working knowledge of local language is necessary. The local language can be Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati--it can include anything. The knowledge of the local language is necessary," he said in Mumbai.

Chavan’s explanation didn’t impress politicians in North India, particularly in Bihar. A good number of over two lakh taxi drivers in Mumbai comprise migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand, and about 4,000 new taxi permits are given each year.

The Congress government in Maharashtra was going the way of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray, said Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad said, a day after the Maharashtra government's move.

"The Congress government in Maharashtra is authoritarian, regional and parochial. It has exposed itself by its latest decision," the former railway minister said. He alleged that the decision was aimed at harassing the hard working people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who had made the city their home.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi said the Maharashtra government's decision was against the Constitution.

"It is nothing but a conspiracy to torture Hindi-speaking north Indian taxi drivers in Mumbai," Modi said.

Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan said: "A state government cannot stop any one from working on basis of language and domicile status. It is in bad taste."