In an unexpected and positive turn of events, there is great news for the commuters and the employers of the state, Karnataka government has lifted the ban on OlaCabs, which was imposed only 2 days back.
Karnataka’s Minister for Social Welfare, Mr. Priyank Kharge, took to Twitter to announce that the ban imposed on ride-hailing company Ola, had been lifted. In his tweet, Mr. Kharge said that Ola would run its business as usual.
The tweet from the Minister, read.
image source: twitter.com
The cause of the 6-Month ban:
In January, Ola started running bike taxis in certain pockets of Bengaluru – but the cab aggregator says this was purely a “beta pilot” project in a bid to gather data for when the state’s policy allowed bike taxis.
On Friday, March 22, the Regional Transport Department had issued a notice to Ola’s parent company, ANI technologies, to suspend all its app-based cab services in the city.
The letter from the Transport Department mentioned that the ride-hailing app had been illegally operating bike-taxi services through alleged ‘fake licenses‘. It also said that the Transport Department would be suspending the company’s license for the next six months. As a result, this banned all its services.
The Department’s notice also stated that the app-based services went against the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
image source: olacabs
Ola was quick to respond
Calling the notification “unfortunate”, Ola Cab said it is working closely with the authorities on the issue.
“Despite other companies continuing to operate illegally, Ola halted our bike taxi experiment weeks ago, instead of seeking the state’s cooperation to develop a legal framework for a pilot that will continue to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the mobility economy,” it said.
NBB believes that these episodes can be avoided if there is clearer and effective communication between various leading startups and State governments, building a stronger and sustainable business eco-system in the country.
