By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Dec 23: Cabbies and cab owners have raised a question over, what they say, sudden hike in parking fee at Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) yard at Paltan Bazar, Guwahati. They say that the facilities being provided by the ASTC are not worth every penny they pay.
The cabbies and cab owners have a number of sore points – right from the rate of fee being charged from them to facilities they get, which they say, are far from being commensurate to the payment they make. They also like to draw a comparison between the treatment ASTC is giving to cabs from Meghalaya and to the ones of the State.
Talking to this reporter, a few cabbies of four-wheelers said: “The first point that doesn’t go in sync with business ethics is that the parking fee of four-wheelers has been hiked from Rs 30 per cab to Rs 50, that too, without any prior notice. What irks us even more is that the facilities being provided at the ASTC parking lot at Paltan Bazar doesn’t commensurate the fees we’ve to pay. We’ve to pay the parking fee even if we don’t get any fare throughout the day. Even the charge of the bathroom at the parking lot has been hiked. However, the facilities being provided at the bathroom haven’t changed. They can at least keep the bathroom clean. We just want the facilities commensurate every penny we pay.”
They further said: “We feel the facilities we get the parking lot pale in comparison to what our Meghalaya counterparts get here. ASTC charges same fees from us and our counterparts in Meghalaya. However, the fact remains that our cabs are nine-seaters, but theirs are 12-seaters. This is not all. We’re not allowed to use railings atop our cabs for carrying goods. All the cabs from Meghalaya that are parked at the ASTC parking lot here have railings. Why is this discrimition?”
This reporter telephoned ASTC Maging Director AP Tiwari for his comments. However, the MD did not pick up the phone.
