Aug. 22: Bengal is cracking the whip on car owners who have signed up with Ola and Uber after registering their vehicles in Odisha and getting a national tourist permit.

The transport department has identified more than 300 such vehicle owners who have been operating for Uber and Ola in Calcutta with Odisha registration.

The government had asked these car owners to get their vehicles registered in Bengal within July 31. When none of them did so, the government launched a crackdown, a move that has come as a setback to taxi aggregators looking to expand their fleets.

"These vehicle owners have violated the conditions for a commercial permit. We had appealed to them to register in Bengal, but since they didn't respond we are left with little alternative but to book them and slap fines," said a senior official of the transport department.

So what exactly is the violation?

Transport department officials cite Rule 85 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, which deals with "additional conditions for tourist permit".

Sub-clause (3) states that a tourist vehicle "shall either commence its journey or end its journey, circular or otherwise, in the home state subject to the condition that the vehicle shall not remain outside the home state for a period of more than three months".

Inspectors from the public vehicles department have found during raids that taxi operators with national tourist permits issued in Odisha were logging into the Ola or Uber platform in Calcutta and ferrying passengers within the city and beyond.

The evidence includes videos of raids in which passengers are seen confirming that they had booked the Odisha-registered app cabs in Calcutta.

The transport department is also investigating a section of car dealers in town for allegedly luring customers with the assurance of a quick national tourist permit from Odisha. "It appears that the demand for national permits is comparatively less in places like Balasore and hence the rush to get vehicles registered in Odisha," an official said.

The owners of all the vehicles seized so far have been fined around Rs 6,000 each.

During the raids, some of the drivers feigned ignorance about violating any rule, officers said.

Most of them claimed to have entered Calcutta to drop passengers who had booked their vehicles in Odisha. Some said they were forced to accept new bookings within the city before they could log themselves out of the app-cab platform.

Transport officials have refused to accept any such excuse. "One of the permit conditions states that when a vehicle visits another state, it shall not be offered for hire for the return journey to any other place except the home state," said a transport department official. "So nobody can say a vehicle was booked again and there was no option but to ferry the passenger."

Taxi aggregators neither confirmed nor denied being aware of the rule breach. "We will not comment on this issue," said a spokesperson for Uber when contacted by Metro.

Calls and mails to Uber's main competitor, Bangalore-headquartered Ola, did not elicit a response.