After SC Brings Back Bike Taxi Ban, Drivers Write To Delhi LG Stating Difficulties

A group of bike taxi drivers has written to Delhi LG V K Saxena asking for his intervention in helping them stave off the ban. This has come on the back of the Delhi Government’s statement of impounding bike taxis if they continue to operate in the city.

The group of drivers submitted a memorandum to LG’s office and said that the Delhi government was adamant on banning their services, news agency PTI reported.

“We will face difficulties in meeting household expenses, getting our children educated and getting our parents treated,” the memorandum said.

Recently, an official of the Delhi transport department said that authorities would impound the vehicles of aggregators including Uber, Ola and Rapido if they continue to ply bike taxis.

“We will issue an advisory to the companies asking them to respect the court order. If they fail to do that, we will start impounding vehicles,” Ashish Kundra, principal secretary and commissioner for transport in the Delhi government.

The statement came after the Supreme Court overruled the Delhi High Court’s order allowing bike taxis to operate in the national capital.

Last month, the Delhi High Court allowed bike taxi aggregators to continue to operate till specific regulations are notified. Following this, the Delhi government moved the Supreme Court.

The apex court observed that the Delhi High Court order was unwarranted as the Delhi government was in the process of formulating a policy for granting licences to bike taxi aggregators.

The conflict between bike taxi aggregators and Delhi government started in February when Delhi’s transport department released an order banning all players from playing bike taxi services in the national capital. It also announced a penalty of INR 1 Lakh on aggregators found flouting the order.

Meanwhile, the transport department published ‘Draft Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Services Provider Scheme’ last month and invited feedback. As per the proposed rules, the government would allow operation of bike taxis, provided the vehicles are electric two-wheelers.

“The Aggregator shall be allowed to operate bike taxi (two-wheeler taxi) services, provided that any vehicle being on-boarded as part of the fleet from the date of commencement of this scheme shall be Electric Vehicles only,” the draft said.