Raj govt announces guidelines for cab companies; Control rooms now mandatory

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has made it mandatory for cab companies to set up control rooms for receiving complaints against their drivers.

The cab companies will need to report serious complaints against drivers to the Regional Transport Office. It is among some of the guidelines announced by the state government to ensure passenger safety in cabs. The passengers can also register a complaint directly with the office of transport commissioner, RTO or any transport office.

The guidelines were announced by Rajasthan transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas in state assembly on Friday. Over 12,000 cabs are operating in the state, mostly by Ola and Uber. No guidelines to rein in on arbitrary increase of fare were announced by the government.

“The cab companies will now need to set up a control room and advertise the numbers so that the passengers can call the control room and register complaints about any misbehaviour, service irregularity or criminal activity that the drivers might be engaged in. The control rooms will receive the complaints and forward them to RTOs for a review from time to time,” said a transport department officer.

The officer added that for now, there is no system enabling passenger to register complaints formally. They can only rate a driver on the mobile app.

About 12000 cabs are operating in the state. Of them, 9799 are in Jaipur.

The guidelines came a day after a girl was molested in a cab in Jaipur. She bit off the molester’s tongue to rescue herself. The cab driver and his friend were arrested.