Despite Uber introducing numerous in-app safety measures, trouble isn’t yet over for the tax-hailing app, at-least in the Indian capital. In a recent development, the Delhi Government has now handed out a deadline to Uber to apply under its newly introduced Radio Taxi Scheme.
In a letter, which was issued on Wednesday and accessed by Reuters the next day, Delhi Government has made it clear that the U.S. firm has a “final opportunity” to submit within a week, additional details to support the application. Those ‘additional details’ include setting up of a mandatory call center, and a dedicated office in Delhi.
Talking about the letter, a Government officer on condition of anonymity, told Reuters,
We can’t keep the application hanging
Considering that there is now a new, AAP-led Gvernment in Delhi, things might get a bit more tougher for the ride-hailing service due to AAP’s tough stance on women and overall safety in Delhi.
In an e-mailed statement to us, an Uber spokesperson said the company ‘has been’ and ‘will continue’ to work with authorities. The spokesperson further said that Uber is ‘evaluating the perceived deficiencies in the time period provided to them by the government ‘.
Government hurdles aren’t new for Uber. Ever since the taxi-hailing app expanded aggressively to countries outside the U.S., it has rather immediately fallen into legal troubles. This has been mainly attributed to Uber’s unique, yet confusing working model, which practically doesn’t fall under existing laws of most of the countries it operates in.
Nevertheless, the tax-hailing app has started reaching agreements with many of the Governments. In fact, in India too, Uber achieved a landmark feat when Commissioner of Police, Government of West Bengal, City of Bidhannagar passed an order regulating on-demand transportation technology aggregators as technology companies, in accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000. This was the first official Government approval for Uber in India.
