Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Sep 27: Daily passengers of Trekker taxis in the capital have urged the authorities to take necessary action against the Trekker drivers for arbitrarily increasing the fare between Itanagar and Naharlagun.
A group of 11 women, mostly government employees, have written to the district administration and the police, complaining about the hike in fare “without any notification from the competent authority.”
Each passenger has to pay Rs 40 for an Itanagar-Naharlagun trip. The fare was raised recently, after the hike in the fuel prices.
A passenger said she and her friends were forced out of a Trekker in Naharlagun on 24 September when they questioned the sudden hike in the fare.
“The driver started to abuse us,” she said.
The passengers have lodged a complaint against the driver, besides seeking a helpline number for the safety of women, and steps to control misbehavior by taxi drivers.
Other than seeking a rollback of the taxi fare hike, they have demanded that all the required taxi permits are checked twice a week, uniforms issued to all the commercial vehicles’ drivers, and old passenger vehicles taken off the roads.
