Mamata Banerjee's sympathy for the recalcitrant Calcutta cabbie has snatched from harassed commuters the one weapon they had in the fight against refusal by taxis.
Regular taxi users who had seen the Rs 3,000 fine for refusal to ferry make some difference braced for a return to anarchy after the chief minister told a gathering of drivers at Nazrul Mancha on Thursday that the "steep" penalty had been withdrawn.
Indrani Ghosh, a resident of Phoolbagan, said Mamata may have handed back taxi drivers the licence to refuse passengers at will. "The situation had improved slightly when the police started slapping fines for refusal. Drivers would think several times before refusing to ferry passengers. Now that the Rs 3,000 fine has been withdrawn, they will have a free run. Women who depend on taxis to travel long distances will suffer the most."
Mamata's announcement that the fine for a first offence would be Rs 100 - and not higher than Rs 1,000 for a fifth instance of refusal and more - is also being seen as negating the initiative by Calcutta and Bidhannagar police to set up no-refusal taxi bays.
And just in case taxi drivers have forgotten how to make excuses for refusing to ferry passengers, the chief minister seemed to pass on a few ideas.
"You should not refuse the passengers but there are certain situations in which you may have no other option left. You refuse a passenger if you are returning home at night and the passenger wants to go in the opposite direction or when there is an emergency in your house," Mamata said at Nazrul Mancha.
Many Calcuttans said they feared that the ruling party's backing and the undermined authority of the traffic police would embolden rogue drivers to be more brazen than before. "Even when the police were slapping a steep fine, some taxi drivers would refuse passengers. Now, with the chief minister herself withdrawing the fine, all taxi drivers will refuse and be brazen about it," said a bank executive from Salt Lake who takes taxis to and from her office in central Calcutta's Clive Row.
Almost every working woman who has tried to hail a taxi to return home in the evening or at night has a tale of harassment to narrate.
"Sometimes, it becomes difficult to assess who is more dangerous at night? The rude taxi driver who refuses me or demands more than the legitimate fare or some suspicious character who is looking for a soft target? When the police started penalising drivers for refusing passengers, they had become cautious lest a passenger click his picture and upload it on the police's Facebook page. That option is no longer there," said Shalini Jha, a resident of Baghajatin who works for an MNC with an office on JL Nehru Road.
If the commuter is worried, the police are even more so. The chief minister, who holds the home portfolio, told the assembly of drivers not to lose their cool if the police slapped cases on them. She advised them to complain to two designated ministers of her cabinet, no less.
"Co-operate with the police. In case they say something, don't quarrel. Say you have a problem. In case they behave badly, take the complaint to.... Bobbyda (urban development minister Firhad Hakim...Aroopda (housing minister Aroop Biswas).... They will see," the chief minister advised.
Police commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha was seated on the stage when Mamata made the announcement.
Sumanjit Roy, deputy commissioner of the traffic department, declined to comment on the move.
Several calls to the mobile phone of Supratim Sarkar, joint commissioner of traffic police, went unanswered. He didn't respond to a text message either.
A senior officer in Lalbazar said on condition of anonymity: "If people outside the force start evaluating the accuracy of police cases, it would become impossible for us to work properly. Officers will think twice before booking a driver, fearing retraction by a minister's office."
