Saturday, 02 March 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Transport department on Friday issued notices to Ola and Uber for allegedly operating in the State without a valid license. The department also appealed to the operators operating vehicles under these companies to halt the operation to avoid penalties. The regional transport officer (Enforcement) of the Dehradun division Shailesh Tiwari said that the department is getting strict against plying of vehicles under app-based aggregators like Ola, Uber and Rapido. He said, “According to the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020 issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the applicant shall not integrate any driver or represent himself as an aggregator unless he holds a valid license issued by the respective State government.
The State government’s rules also clearly state that no person shall act as an aggregator unless he has obtained a license issued by the licensing authority.” However, these aggregators have been operating in the State without valid licenses for the past many years. The number of vehicles plying under these app- based aggregators has increased manifold in recent years. As informed by Tiwari, there are at least about 500 such vehicles that operate under Uber and Ola but none are operating as per the rules. He also said that the department will soon start taking action against such operators and appealed to them to not operate under such companies that are not validated at the State level. He said that if these companies will get valid licenses from the department, it will also help passengers regarding their complaints about the service.
Tiwari said that if Uber and Ola fail to comply with the rules within the stipulated time, the department will impose a penalty up to Rs one lakh as per section 193 of the Motor Vehicles Act for the violation of section 93 of the MV Act, 1988.
