Click to play videoMumbai: The government of Maharashtra has done what Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiva Sena preach. It has decided to close doors to taxi drivers from outside the state.
According to a Maharashtra Cabinet decision taken on Wednesday new taxi permits will be granted to only those people who have been residing in the state for 15 years.
The new rules also state that who applying for taxi permits must speak, read and write Marathi.
Taxi drivers have been Mumbai's favour whipping boys and the most visible target for any protest, especially by the two Senas.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray's goons had beaten up many taxi drivers from North India just before the Assembly Elections to push home the Marathi Manoos agenda.
In fact, it seems to have worked so well that the Congress now wants a piece of the action and is muscling into taxi politics.
"Drivers who will be employed in the new taxis should be fluent in spoken and written Marathi. That's what the government wants," said Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.
It is a clear move to try and steal the Marathi Manoos card from the MNS.
The new order will not affect the thousands of taxi drivers most of them migrants already on the road as new permits will have to follow the new rule.
"Any political party suggesting such rules is all right. But a government decision is undemocratic and violation of the Constitution," said Mumbai taxi union general secretary AL Quadros.
"What will we do if our livelihood is snatched from us? How will we survive?" asked a North Indian taxi driver.
"My mother tongue is Hindi. It is not necessary for me to know Marathi," said another driver.
Nationalist Congress Party, an ally of the Congress, is trying to play down the clearly political move.
Any person who comes to Mumbai has to know that he has to have something official. He has to be a resident of Maharashtra for 15 years," said NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad.
Over 4,000 new taxi licenses are to be issued in Mumbai and Maharashtra in the coming months and all the applicants for those will get affected by this decision.
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