Cabbies see red over khaki uniforms

Citing discrimination on the basis of colours of uniforms of taxi owner-cum-drivers as well as drivers who ply taxis on a rental basis, the Mumbai taximen’s union (MTU) on Wednesday renewed their demand to allow drivers to wear the colours of their choice.
According to an earlier notification, the person behind the wheel in khaki uniform is only the driver.
In the letter, MTU states that the change was enforced despite the union’s opposition. A.L. Quadros, general secretary of the union asked, “Why this discrimination? It must be corrected as soon as possible.” He is of the view that taximen should have options and allowed to wear both the uniforms whether he is an owner or driver of the taxi.
“Before the year 2003, the taxi drivers were allowed to wear both the colours,” said Mr Quadros, adding, “Since 2003, The transport department made only the khaki dress compulsory. We have written to the transport department asking them to change the rule.”
Typically, a taxi is driven by two drivers in a day. They drive the taxi on a rental basis by paying a fixed sum to the vehicle owner.
However, there are also permit and vehicle owners who drive their own taxis. To differentiate between the two, permit and vehicle owners historically wore white. The 2007 order irked them, as it mandated the use of only khaki uniform. Several drivers can be seen wearing the old white uniform in defiance of the order. Drivers claim that the traffic police routinely penalises them.
The transport officials said that they are in the process to change this rule and will be done soon. “The owner of my car wants me to wear a white uniform. When owners don’t have a problem then why does the government?” asked Yadubansh Pandey, who has been driving a rented a taxi for the past 10 years.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/234555" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-fd72b1c1bb0b950ee537d42636258bc1" value="form-fd72b1c1bb0b950ee537d42636258bc1" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="83884550" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.