Cheating cabbies paid Rs 20m in fines in six months

KATHMANDU, Feb 2: With a sharp rise in the trend of taxi drivers ripping off passengers through various methods, the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) has stepped up efforts to take action against unscrupulous taxi drivers.

In the first six months of the current fiscal year, the MTPD has taken action against 6,552 taxi drivers who were found to have been cheating passengers, collecting about Rs 20 million in revenue through fines. In the last three days alone, the MTPD has booked 222 taxi drivers, collecting Rs 666,000 in revenue. The MTPD informed Republica that police personnel from the division nabbed 61 taxi drivers on Tuesday, 80 on Wednesday and 82 on Thursday.

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Cheating cabbies paid Rs 20m in fines in six months

According to the officials from the MTPD, the division has started taking action against the taxi drivers who do not agree to be paid by the meter, tamper with their meters, ask for hefty charges, and do not drop the passengers at the previously agreed drop-off point.

“The division had been taking action against the taxi drivers who were found to have been cheating the passengers under various pretexts,” chief of MTPD, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basanta Kumar Panta informed Republica, “With the information that such acts had increased, we stepped up action against such taxi drivers.”

He added that the MTPD has also mobilized more police personnel in plain clothes in order to catch the taxi drivers cheating the passengers red-handed. “We have mobilized personnel in plain clothes so that we can catch those taxi drivers red-handed,” he said.

The taxi drivers have to pay Rs 3,000 every time they are found to be guilty of conjuring such acts and if they repeat such action for the fifth time, their driving license is suspended for six months.

“The division has been keeping the records of the taxi drivers who were found to be cheating the passengers,” Inspector Keshav Bhatta of the MTPD said, “When a taxi driver is booked for the fifth time, his driving license is suspended for six months.” He added that the division has been coordinating with the Department of Transport Management to suspend the license of such taxi drivers.