When Delhi CM Aravind Kejriwal cracked whip on App based cab operators Ola and Uber for fleecing people with surge pricing,many wondered whether he could achieve success. However Aravind Kejriwal emerged winner as Ola and Uber mended their ways and completely removed surge pricing in Delhi with which they actually planned to make rich dividends cashing on to odd even rule.
But app based cabs in Hyderabad, capital city of Telangana are feecing people with surge pricing. What came as shock is authorities didnot bother to curb the menace. Police wrote to RTA authorities asking them to come with modalities to curb the operators as many are operating illegally without obtaining the required licence.
In Oct 2015,Union Government headed by PM Modi sent advisory all states to on issuing licences to `On Demand Information Technology Based Transportation Aggregator'.Advisory stated “all on-demand transportation technology aggregators or their subsidiaries in India must obtain a licence under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, from the transport department that has jurisdiction over the State Transport Authority (STA) area where they were operating and adhere to the terms and conditions specified.“
It is comingout that none of the taxi aggregators including Uber,Ola,Taxi For Sure obtained licences. G.Panduranga Rao, joint transport commissioner and secretary , STA,speaking to scribe said “So far, only Uber has applied for a licence, but we have not granted it because of surge pricing issue mentioned in the application by the service provider. We have informed Uber that surge pricing is not allowed as per law and asked them to apply again with a revised proposal,“
10000 Uber cabs and 8000 Ola cacbs are operating in the ecity and Hyderabad police are receiving complaints from competitors Radio Cabs and other customers about surge pricing. In Bangalore and Delhi police and RTA started booking cab drivers for surge prising and Hyderabad is considering the same. Police however say till now they didnot get any written complaint and if they get,they will book the cacb driver and suspend the vehicle permit.
