Srinagar, June 6: The authorities have failed to allot stands for the passenger Tata Sumo cabs operating from the City–irking travellers and the drivers alike –even as the vehicular traffic movement gets affected.
 Official sources said over 5000 Sumos having requisite permit to operate from the City catering to the inter-district and also the Srinagar –Jammu highway. But the fact is that most of the cabs don’t have a designate stand. As a result they operate arbitrarily from anywhere they find convenient space.
 Take the case of cab service to Jammu.  Scores of the vehicles operate from the City centre of Lal Chowk exactly near the clock tower. And ever since the highway was thrown open for 24 hour traffic, one finds the taxi to Jammu available from the commercial hub almost day and night.
 But the cabs, as per police, operate illegally, as they don’t have a stand.
 The roadside cab service adds to the traffic congestion in the City centre.

DRIVER’S POINT
 The cab operators have a point. “The authorities have failed to provide us with a registered stand where from we can operate so we have no options but to come up with arbitrary stands,” said a cab driver, requesting not to be named.
 He said driving the taxi was like staying between the devil and the deep sea.
 “On one hand, the  police exploits us as we don’t operate from a legalized stand while on the other people look down upon us as wandering Sumo,” said a driver, a degree holder in Arts by qualification.
 “Jobless and frustrated, I borrowed heavily from bank for buying the cab hoping it would make me earn  two square meals a day, but the cab brought more of a curse as I couldn’t get a stand,” he said.
 A few months ago Sumo operators had staged protest demonstrations demanding proper stands, but till now the demand hasn’t been met.

PERMIT IRONY
 The cabs are without stand despite having a permit to operate.
 Observers said the permit allotment system needs to be revamped and made more accountable.
 “The permits are given for contract carriage applicable for operating anywhere in the state. The area of travel isn’t mentioned,” said a senior official in the traffic department.
 He said the permit be allotted on the basis of requirement on various routes and availability of stands.

ASSOCIATION SPEAKS
 When contacted, the Tourist Taxi Operators Association, General Secretary, Muhammad Yusuf Khan said the association many a time appealed the government to allot some land where a big taxi stand could be developed.
 “We many a time appealed the government to allot us land… held several deliberations with them but till now nothing fruitful came forth in this regard,” Khan told Greater Kashmir.

PROPOSAL REMAIN PROPOSAL
 From time to time, several sites in the City were proposed to be the Sumo stands.
 Official sources said the government had identified some 240 kanal land at Parimpora on the City outskirts to be the Sumo Stand for north Kashmir.
 Similarly, land was identified on Nowgam highway for south Kashmir and Jammu service.
 Besides, vacant piece of state government owned land at Sonawar near the cantonment was found idle for Jammu route.
 But till now, the proposals remain a proposal.

BLAME GAME
 The Regional Transport Office and the Traffic police prefer a blame-game to plead the failure.
 The RTO Officer says the “land bank is available” with the Srinagar Municipal Corporation and the Srinagar Development Authority adding that they alone could provide land.
 “For establishment of a Sumo stand the traffic police has to give the requisite NOC and we have no role in it,” the RTO said.
 But the traffic police put back the blame on the RTO saying “Our job is traffic regulation and not finding space for Sumo stands,” said a Traffic Police official.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 6 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST