Delhi cops use Uber, Ola apps to trap cabbies flouting ban

New Delhi Jun 4, 2015 (Agency) : After the Delhi government rejected the licence applications of taxi aggregators Uber, Ola and TaxiForSure and now the city's cops have gone one step further by downloading the apps to book cabs and impound the car when it arrives.In a major crackdown on three app-based cab services in the capital, the Delhi Traffic Police has begun prosecuting taxi drivers and and impounded more than 120 cabs and issued challans to 158 in the last 24 hours for violating the ban imposed on them by the city government in December.Sources in the know said of the 120 cabs, only 12 are taxis attached to Uber, while the rest are Ola and TaxiForsure.Interestingly, Traffic Police in the capital have been directed to download the three apps, then book the cab and prosecute the drivers once they arrive.The traffic cops have even approached the Transport department to initiate action under Section 188 of the IPC against company executives for not obeying government directions. So basically, liability of the company (Uber, Ola or Taxi for Sure) will also be fixed."In order to effectively enforce the ban on these services, we have asked all our Traffic Inspectors (TIs) to download the mobile App, book a taxi and when it arrives challan it. The offending vehicle will also be impounded and a letter will be written to Transport Department to cancel the permit of the vehicle," a Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander was quoted as saying by IBNLive.Delhi's government has also already asked the central government to block customer access to the mobile applications of these firms.Top Delhi government officials on Wednesday said the applications of the three taxi aggregators were rejected for not filing undertakings stating they were complying with a ban imposed on them. The three operators had filed the applications under the modified Radio Taxi Scheme introduced five months ago.On 28 May, Uber and Ola cabs were asked to provide details like number of vehicles and addresses of their drivers to ensure regularisation of their services but the two operators did not comply with it, Transport Minister



Gopal Rai said."We have continuously been asking Uber, Ola Cabs and TaxiForSure to give a affidavit since March this year, stating that they are complying ban order imposed on them in December last year, but they did not do the same. We have today rejected their applications for licence," said a top official.Clearly Uber, TaxiForSure and Ola are in a soup as the transport department decision comes two months after it had put all three in a Catch-22 situation.  The operators were given two choices -- prove that they followed the provisions of the ban by suspending business between the date of the imposition of the ban and the date of their fresh applications or invite a case of cheating for furnishing false information through a sworn affidavit, says the Hindu report.Unfazed by the rejection of its application, Uber said it will file a fresh application for the same."While the rejection of our application for a licence under the amended Radio Taxi scheme is unfortunate, we look forward to file a fresh application under a new set of guidelines that are due to be issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act," Uber Delhi GM Gagan Bhatia said in a statement.He added that once these guidelines are issued, the company will engage in "constructive dialogue" with the Delhi government to seek necessary permissions.All app-based cab services were banned in the national capital after a driver of Uber, the US-based online cab service provider, was accused of raping a 27-year-old woman passenger in December last year.Earlier this week, a woman had accused a driver contracted with Uber of attempting to molest her after she hailed his cab to go to Gurgaon from Delhi. The driver, identified as Vinod, was arrested on Tuesday and later released.The same day Transport Minister Gopal Rai said that the AAP government would not consider applications for licence from app-based taxi operators Uber and Ola Cabs unless they comply with the existing ban imposed on them.He had also said that these taxi aggregators have to take responsibility of safety of passengers travelling in their vehicles.