Governor warns to remiss taxi firms

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso threatened on Wednesday to revoke licenses of any taxi firms if they were involved in any crimes.

The warning was issued following the vicious rape in a Kotas (Koperasi Taksi Sepakat) taxi last Friday.

"We have to punish all violators, no matter how small they are," he told reporters at City Hall.

Sutiyoso said such punishment was needed, at least as a warning.

"If we let small violations go unpunished, people will think that it will be okay to break the rules and will start to break others," he said.

One of Friday's rapists allegedly hid in the taxi's trunk, which was connected to the backseat of the vehicle.

Sutiyoso admitted there were taxi drivers who deliberately designed their taxis to facilitate crimes even though the taxis were routinely checked every six months.

"The taxis are fine when checked at the vehicle test centers. But as soon as they leave the test centers, the drivers return their cars to their original bad condition," he said.

The governor also ordered all related agencies to conduct raids to make sure all taxis were safe for residents.

"We can take a lesson from this case to strengthen our supervision of taxis," he said.

Data at the city administration show that there are 24,048 taxi licenses granted to 32 taxi companies. However, there are only 22,357 taxis operational in the city.

The Kotas taxi company operates 253 taxis of 261 granted licenses.

Separately, head of the City Public Land Transportation Agency Buyung Atang said his agency would also revoke the licenses of any taxis involved in crimes.

"We have warned taxi companies of crimes committed by their drivers. If another driver from the same company is involved in a crime, we will revoke the license without any warnings," he said.

Buyung also said the agency would intensify its operations to net taxis operating in bad condition.

"We conducted such operations before and we will intensify them to make sure there are no taxis used for such crimes," he said.

He also suggested residents be careful when choosing a taxi, especially in the evening.

"Residents should check the taxi's serial number and its driver's identification card before getting into a taxi. Taking notes on such information will be useful if anything bad happens," he said.

He, however, said it was the city police's responsibility to apprehend all the culprits involved in such crimes.(05)