Srinagar, Jun 15: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has expressed its anguish over the “failure” of the government in regulating the tourist taxi fares and asked the authorities to make provision of prepaid taxis.
Hearing a writ petition by the Sumo Tourist Taxi Stands Pahalgam, a bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar observed that the respondent (UT administration) has “failed to regulate the fair charging of rates by the taxi operators. It is unthinkable in this era of digital world that the taxi operators who are registered with the Department of Tourism, can still charge exorbitant rates and fleece tourists.”
The bench suggested the Pahalgam Development Authority to rise to the occasion and put in place measures like making provision of prepaid taxis. “By taking this measure no tourist operator can dare to charge the rate higher than fixed by the Department of Tourism,” it said.
The respondent government shall also be well within its right to cancel the registration of such taxi operators who are found to have charged the rate higher than the one fixed by the competent authority, it said further.
This extreme step has been directed with a caveat of providing an opportunity of being heard to the taxi operators.
The petition moved by the tourist taxi stands of Pahalgam seeking quashing the decision by the Kashmir’s Director Tourism allowing additional taxis from other recognized stands of the valley to operate in the Pahalgam area.
They pleaded that the authorities have already restricted the registration of tourist taxis with the petitioner stands to only 600 vehicles. The permission to operate taxis from other stands would affect their livelihood. Besides, it will create traffic chaos in Pahalgam and its adjoining areas like Aru valley, Betaab valley and Chandanwari, their petition said.
The court observed that the authorities had taken the decision to allow taxis from other stands to operate in the area due to complaints from tourists that exorbitant rates were being charged by the vehicles of the two petitioner stands in Pahalgam.
“It is with a view to streamline the operation of the taxis in the area of Pahalgam and to ensure that there is healthy competition. The official decision appears to have been taken by a committee headed by the Director Tourism, which held its meeting on 13th April, 2024,” it noted.
The petition was accordingly disposed of by providing that the respondents shall not permit any taxi operator to operate its taxi on a route for which it does not hold the valid permit for plying the vehicles from Pahalgam to Aru valley, Betab valley, Chandanwari, etc., and other tourist destinations, within the jurisdiction of Pahalgam Development Authority.
The respondents, however, shall be free to come up with a comprehensive policy to ensure that the taxi operators whose livelihoods are dependent upon tourism in the Pahalgam area are not deprived of their opportunity of livelihood. At the same time it has to be ensured that there is no traffic chaos created in the township of Pahalgam and in the aforementioned areas, ordered the court.
