[varunswnt]

All those who rely on ride-hailing services like Ola and Uber in Lonavala and Khandala areas, need to know that RTO has banned such services based on requests from local Taxi and Rickshaw associations.

News Link 1

Addressing the concerns of local residents, the Maharashtra government, under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, has announced a complete ban on online taxi services such as Ola and Uber in Lonavala.

This decision was taken during a high-level review meeting held on Tuesday (August 20), at the Ministry to discuss various issues facing Lonavala city

News Link 2

Under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister of the state and Guardian Minister of Pune district Ajit Pawar, a review meeting was held on Tuesday (August 20) regarding various problems in the city of Lonavla. Last week on Friday (August 16) in a dialogue meeting held in Lonavla city, Ajit Pawar promised to hold a special meeting regarding the problems in the city. Accordingly, this meeting was concluded in the ministry on Tuesday (August 20). In the said meeting many important decisions were taken for Lonavala-Khandala city.

Online taxis (Ola/Uber etc.) have been completely banned from doing business in Lonavla city and Ajit Pawar gave instructions in this regard in the meeting. So the local rickshaw and taxi drivers of Lonavala city have got relief. Also, their demand for many years has been successful.

Link 3

A joint meeting with Lonavala Khandala Taxi Drivers-Owners Association was held today (August 30) at Kumar Resort.

In a meeting (August 20) held in Mumbai under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Ola Uber has been banned from doing business in Lonavala city. Following the order, an important joint meeting of the officials of the Pune District Transport Department and local rickshaw, taxi drivers, representatives, grandmothers and former office bearers was held.
"Lakhs of tourists come here every day. But online transport companies are taking away the jobs of the locals. As per the directions given by respected Ajit dada in the meeting, this transport service should be stopped in Lonavala. The Pune Regional Transport Office and the district collector had denied licences to companies like Ola and Uber as they did not meet the requirements and rules for an aggregator licence. Similarly, the RTO officials should take care that this traffic will be closed permanently in Lonavala city. We are always trying to ensure that no one takes away the rightful employment of our local sons of the soil. Taxis and rickshaws of our local sons of the soil will be ready to provide better service to the tourists, "Manogat said. "

Sanjay Mavkar, President of the Taxi Association and other dignitaries of the city were present on the occasion.

[Rajjaiswal92]

The court of law will stay this order and eventually strike it down, the mechanism of our country will work well till this point the government will eventually allow and take the order back.
Now comes the tricky part, post this order the government will allow the local unions to harass, beat and damage the property of these cab operators while the police will not take any action, if the online cabs still continue the next step is to harass the customers and tourists using them, eventually the service would be stopped, the government will win the vote bank, the cab unions will charge as and what they want and the poor tourist will pay blood and sweat for a 2 km short ride.

If this doesn’t seem real please visit Goa.

[Black_Star]

This order probably goes against the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution, Article 19 (1) (g) provides all the citizens of the country the right to practice any profession, occupation, business or trade of their choice.

[freelancer6202]

Originally Posted by Black_Star

This order probably goes against the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution, Article 19 (1) (g) provides all the citizens of the country the right to practice any profession, occupation, business or trade of their choice.

Our country is not very big on rights. Rights are thrown aside as soon as some minority/community/vote bank is offended.

[streetfighter]

Apparently, there is a gang (of unemployed youths) operating in collusion with the police to help implement the crackdown. As per the video below, a 10k fine is being imposed which is huge. Not sure under what violation this will be tagged under, but this is huge inconvenience to the taxi drivers as well as for the visitors.

https://youtu.be/-gzn5GhslRU