More articles by

Niranjan Takle
Niranjan Takle

BMC POLLS

EC to hire 3,500 taxis for BMC election staff

taxis-mumbai Representational image | PTI

The State Election Commission has started negotiating with two taxi unions for making arrangements for the conveyance of BMC election staff on the day of polling, a day before and on the day of counting. The EC plans to hire 3500 taxis in Mumbai for the purpose.

A.L. Quadros, general secretary of the Mumbai Taximen's Union said, “We are negotiating with the authorities and we have asked for Rs 2,500 a day for a taxi. We will negotiate and fix the rate soon.” The commission had hired 2,200 cabs for Rs 1,200 a day during the 2009 general elections. The rate during 2014 elections was Rs 1,830 a day for 100kms and Rs 12 each for every extra kilometer.

“We will be required to pick up the staff from various centers and drop them at the polling stations across the city in the wee hours and pick them up from the polling stations to drop them back to their centers,” said Quadros. He added that the taxi drivers, at times, have to face the angry mobs at sensitive polling stations.

The police department too require a few hundred taxis for deploying policemen and women at various locations during these days.

The expenses incurred towards the entire election process, including deployment of staff, security and food have to be borne by the BMC. Every day, around 30,000 taxis ply in Mumbai and shortage of 3,500 taxis on the day of polling and counting is expected to cause some inconvenience to people.

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.
Topics : #Maharashtra

Related Reading