In the wake of Centre’s advisory to states to ensure stoppage of web-based taxi services following the alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman executive in Delhi, the Karnataka Government today said all taxi services that are not registered in the State will be considered illegal and will have to stop operations immediately.

“All those taxi services who have not registered in the State will be considered illegal and will be stopped from operating. Those who have registered will be legal and can operate as usual,” Transport Commissioner Rame Gowda told PTI.

The Centre on Tuesday had asked all States and Union Territories to ensure stoppage of web-based taxi services, including Uber.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs has advised the state governments/UT administrations to ensure that the operations of the web-based taxi services are stopped,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said in a suo motu statement in Rajya Sabha.

Asked if any time would be given to taxi services to register, Gowda said “no, they can’t operate. With immediate effect they will have to stop.”

On Uber, he said ”...they have also not registered, so illegal terms will apply to them as well.”

Following the rape of the woman executive in Delhi by a taxi driver, City Police had on Tuesday issued instructions that all drivers must get their background verification done before December 31.

Instructing taxi drivers and owners that all the 25 permit conditions must be strictly followed, police had said “if the permit conditions are violated by a taxi, the operator or the aggregator, whoever it may be, will be jointly liable for criminal action.”

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