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The Delhi Government has asked the IT Ministry to block mobile phone apps of three cab hailing services — Ola Cabs, Uber Cabs and TaxiForSure.
However, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, when asked, refused to comment, saying that he had not seen the letter and would comment only after going through it.
Uber Cabs, too, has declined comment. In a letter dated March 24, to the Secretary, Department of Electronic and Information Technology (DIETY), Delhi’s Transport Department Secretary & Commissioner Geetanjali Gupta apprised the Centre that consequent to the rape incident on December 5, 2014, the operation of unlicensed app-based taxi services had been banned in Delhi.
The ban order was challenged by some operators in the Delhi High Court, which after hearing the petitioners felt it appropriate to continue with the ban till such time as the operators got a licence. “However, some of these companies such as Ola Cabs, Uber Cabs and TaxiForSure are not complying with the ban orders and continue to book passengers through their Apps,” says the letter, seen by BusinessLine on the social media.
In the letter, Gupta said the Transport Department had been receiving a number of complaints that operation of such services was putting the safety and security of commuters at risk. “A PIL has recently been filed in the Delhi High Court in this matter,” the letter added.
“It is requested therefore to block the operation of Apps of ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd (Ola Cabs), Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd and TaxiForSure so that they are not able to solicit passengers unauthorisedly through their Apps,” the letter added. On Tuesday, the Delhi government had asked Uber, the US-based online cab hailing company, to submit a self-sworn affidavit declaring that it was complying with the ban order imposed by it.
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