• Festive season measure: Dial 100 to report taxi refusal, fleecing
    Times of India | 3 October 2023
  • KOLKATA: Now one can dial 100 for all taxi complaints, including taxi refusals, overcharging and misbehaviour. The Kolkata Traffic Police has asked harassed passengers using taxis – both yellow taxis and app-cabs – to dial 100 to complain against taxi services. Earlier, such complaints could be made at 1073.

    The cops have also asked harassed citizens who are facing overcharging or misbehaviour from parking attendants to dial 100.The information was put up by the Kolkata Traffic Police on its Facebook page on Monday evening.

    “This measure is aimed at all forms of taxi services. 1073 – where all transport related calls are entertained – will continue to function normally,” said an officer.

    The development, coming days before the festive season, has been prompted by taxi excesses, especially from shopping destinations like New Market and Gariahat and railway stations like Kolkata and Santragachhi.

    Police said while Dial 100 is essentially used as an emergency number; they are bringing taxi complaints within the ambit because of its recall value. “People often end up dialing us at 100 to report cabbies behaving indecently with them or demanding excess fares. So it was natural we use this as an alternate number,” said a traffic cop.

    Citizens, responding to the police appeal on FB, said that action on the ground rather than mere announcements was the need of the hour. “Still no refusals will continue to refuse,” wrote Gourav Gupta on the KP FB page.

    TOI visited New Market to gauge the situation on ground. At 6.30pm on Monday, taxi drivers asked for Rs 475 to Patuli. A trip to Behala Chowrasta was Rs 450-480 while a trip to Birati was Rs 850. A trip to Sealdah, barely a 10-15 minute ride on a holiday (Monday being Gandhi Jayanti) cost Rs 200. No ride beyond 6 km saw any driver agree to a fare below Rs 300.

    “The government is doing a disservice by refusing to raise the fares. If you can pay for app cabs, you can pay a bit more for taxis too,” said Rameswar Prasad, a taxi driver.

    The Special Raid Section of traffic police that carries out raids on errant taxi drivers said they have formed special teams leading up to the festival. “Based on the complaints received, we will summon the drivers. We also plan surprise checks in the coming days,” said an officer..

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