Karnataka Police and transport officials are expected to launch a joint operation on the autorickshaw ride-hailing services of Uber, Ola and Rapido, as per reports.

Araga Jnanendra, Home Minister says, “Will hold a meeting with top police and transport officials to regulate the operations of platform-based aggregators. Complaints had been pouring in from the public that their fares for auto rides were much higher than those mandated by the government.”

B Sriramulu, transport minister says, “Authorities would start seizing autos found to be running on aggregators’ platforms despite the transport department’s direction to stop these operations."

Home Minister says, “The aggregators were operating with total disregard for the government’s orders and regulations and were doing all sorts of illegal things. The government, he added, would intervene and do what it could to fix loopholes and prevent citizens from being fleeced.”

The transport department earlier issued a notice to Ola, Uber and Rapido, asking them to stop their auto ride-hailing services as the license issued to them under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016, allows them to offer only taxi services in vehicles with a capacity of six people, excluding the driver. The department also gave them until Tuesday to submit their fare structures and respond to complaints of overcharging.

L Hemanth Kumar, additional commissioner of the department says, “Aggregators applied for a license to operate motor cabs and we have issued a license for the same. Auto rickshaws don’t come under that. For instance, our rules stipulate GPS installation. Can we expect an auto to have a GPS?”

While the companies initially planned to argue that the law did not explicitly say only cars could be aggregated, the government said autos were not covered by the aggregator license.