Taxi drivers in Mumbai may now have an additional task on their hands apart from ferrying passengers ― keeping the police informed about any suspicious activity. Taxi drivers, however, feel they will now be harassed more by the police.
The Mumbai police is planning this initiative as part of its Alert Mumbaikar campaign to keep a tab on the movement of suspicious people in the city. The police in Mumbai want to emulate the practice followed by their counterparts in the Gulf countries where taxi drivers have to give a detailed report to the police about the passengers ferried by them throughout the day.
“In the Gulf countries, the details provided by the taxi drivers, including the point from where the passenger had taken the cab and where he/she got down, are compiled by the police. It serves as a source of information for them,” additional commissioner of police (protection and security) Naval Bajaj told the Daily News & Analysis (DNA) newspaper.
Taxis have been used by terrorists to carry out their activities in the past in Mumbai city. Taxi drivers have even been witnesses in a few cases.
Yet, it may take a while for this project to get under way. “We have plans to requests cab drivers to put up our posters in their cabs and also help us with the information if they see any suspicious movements of their passengers. What we want is to use cabs as a channel of spreading information among the people," the officer said.
The Jagrut (Alert) Mumbaikar campaign, launched earlier in 2008, was relaunched earlier this month with a view to educate and alert the masses about terrorism. The earlier initiative had focused on covering housing societies, schools and colleges to sensitise the people to the constant threat perception, but eventually started fading away. This time the Mumbai police has roped in popular Bollywood actor Ajay Devgun to be the face of the campaign.
The trigger factor for this new move is based on a recent survey of Mumbai citizens. Only 79 per cent people in the city are aware of the hazards of terrorist activities. And among those who do, fewer still take the step of providing information to the police about any suspicious activity.
The leader of the city's taxi drivers union, however, feels this is a good but not feasible idea. "But the ground realities in Mumbai are very different from that of Gulf countries. When a driver gets beaten up or robbed, it takes more than six hours to get a police case registered. Given how things stand here, the move will open up scope for more corruption and harassment of taxi drivers," AL Quadros, secretary, Mumbai Taximen's Union, told the DNA newspaper.
There are other problems too, as Quadros told the NDTV news channel, "One taxi driver was a key witness in the Gateway of India blast, but he had to leave the city after the verdict. We are ready to act as alert citizens but the police should consider giving us appropriate security when we pass on such information. We all know the condition of police informers. However, if any driver does get such information and he is ready to share it, we will be more than happy to support him."
