Mumbai's taxi drivers will be partners in policing

Besides running taxis, one of the lifelines in the commuters’ city, the drivers of cabs will soon be serving another crucial function: they will be keeping the Mumbai police informed. The city cops are planning to rope in their services in the Alert Mumbaikar campaign to keep a tab on the movement of suspicious people.

Taking a cue from the Gulf countries, where the cab drivers have to give a detailed report to the police about the passengers ferried by them throughout the day, the police have sought to initiate a similar practice in Mumbai too.

“In the Gulf countries, the details provided by the cab drivers, including the point from where the passenger had taken the cab and where he got down, are compiled by the police. It serves as a source of information for them,” additional commissioner of police (protection and security) Naval Bajaj said.

Asked when the police were going to introduce it in Mumbai, Bajaj said they did not have any plans to go fully into it. “We have plans to requests cab drivers to put up our posters in their cabs and also help us with the information if they see any suspicious movements of their passengers,” he said, adding terrorists have used cabs in the past. ``What we want is to use cabs as a channel of spreading information among the people,” he said. The Alert Mumbaikar campaign, launched in 2008, is being headed by Bajaj.

Bajaj expressed shock at the poor awareness among the citizens about activities related to terror. “LINTAS, a leading company, had conducted a research and the results were shocking. It shows that only 79% people in the city are aware of the hazards of a terrorist activity. Of them, very few actually take the step to provide information to the police about any suspicious activity,” he said.