SHILLONG, OCT 18: The government constituted committee headed by director of tourism Cyril Diengdoh on Friday asked the tourist taxi associations to submit their suggestions in writing for necessary examination.
Addressing media persons after the meeting, Diengdoh said, “I had requested all the tourist taxi associations to give their suggestions in writing to the government to the committee. Once they give in writing we will examine the suggestions, we will consult the departments concerned including law, police and the transport department, who is also a member of this committee and we will consult other stakeholders and then we can arrive at what are the suggestions and recommendations to be given by the committee.”
Asked on the AKMTTA’s demand, the director said the association had clarified before the committee that they are not at all asking for any ban of Assam vehicles as they know that lots of tourists have to come from Guwahati airport.
“So they (AKMTTA) have suggested some policies. So I told them to give that in writing what policy that they want in local tourist spots. They did not elaborate on that. They said they will give in writing. Once they give in writing then we will examine as it involves multiple stakeholders including the transport department because they were citing the examples of other states. So I said give in writing what the other states are doing and what kind of agreements do they have. Once they give it in writing, we will examine it as transport department also has to be consulted in this since it is a key stakeholder in this,” he said.
Stating that today’s meeting was only a discussion, Diengdoh said, “There’s nothing decided today because obviously these are legal issues, policy issues, they need time and they consultations with many stakeholders. As you are aware the committee’s mandate also is to have wide ranging consultations with all stakeholders.”
According to him, most of the tourist spots in the state are run by community, shnongs and societies.
“Therefore, we will also be consulting the tourist spot owners after we get everything in writing (from the taxi associations),” he said.
Further, the director of tourism informed that some of the suggestions given by the taxi associations were very practical in nature such as developing an app for taxi associations and the drivers.
“…some of them suggested why don’t we have an app so we decided that yes from the tourism department, we will come up with an app where we will list all the tourist taxi associations including the drivers that belonged to this association so that tourists who will come from outside, will have one app, where they will have a listing of all the tourist taxi associations including the drivers and the routes through which they ply so that there will be information to tourists and through this information they can hire them,” he said.