Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
1st June 2012 issue-
LICENSE
PLEASE!
NEELAKANTAPPA &
GANG RUNS BOGUS ASSOCIATION, MINT MONEY!
BANGALORE AIRPORT KSTDC
TAXI DRIVERS’ WELFARE ASSOCIATION IS ILLEGAL.
Shaken by the total and
detailed exposure of their day light robbery in ‘The Bangalore Metro Reporter’
News Paper, the Neelakantappa gang tried to stage manage the General Body
meeting of the Association on 25th of May. The gang is also stage
managing the audit of its accounts and the hard fact is that Neelakantappa gang
is operating the Association which does not have any legal sanctity. Their
‘Bangalore Airport KSTDC Taxi Drivers Welfare Association’ is a bogus one and
unregistered! How could the KSTDC, a government undertaking recognise this
Association and what more abdicating some of its official powers to this bogus
Association?
Wonder of wonders, the Bangalore Airport KSTDC
Taxi Drivers Welfare Association which suffixes ‘Registered’ to its name, is
taking everybody for a ride as the same is not registered with any government authority.
For the last several years, this ‘set up’ Association has not conducted General
Body Meetings, audit of accounts let alone elections! At the same time it has
collected lakhs of rupees from the helpless owners cum taxi drivers. Even now,
the Association is collecting call centre charges on its receipts. At every
stage, the Taxi drivers are harassed and squeezed.
Neelakantappa gang and even the KSTDC use the name ‘Bangalore
Airport KSTDC Taxi Drivers Welfare Association’. The KSTDC has recognised this
Association in this name
and even the receipts, Letter heads of the
Association sports this name. Neelakantappa gang has collected Rs.16500/- from each
cab owners cum drivers as membership fee. And till to day there are no official
documents to prove the credentials of anybody as a Member of the Association!
And the hard fact is that there is no association by name ‘Bangalore
Airport KSTDC Taxi Drivers Welfare Association’ registered either with the
Registrar of Societies or the Labour Commissioner. ‘The Bangalore Metro
Reporter’ had made enquiries about the real status of this Association and the
result is that this Association is not registered. How could Neelakantappa gang suppress this ‘all important’ fact from the government
and the taxi drivers?
It is another matter that many of the Executive Committee
members and even office bearers have tried to ascertain about the bonafides of
this Association. Interestingly, the letter head, receipts application forms
etc. printed by this association carry ‘Registered’ but not the registration
number and
the year of the registration which is a must for any registered society or
Association! Putting the ‘Registered’ word after the name of the Association
without actually being registered is not only cheating but a criminal offence
as well. Till today, nobody except Neelakantappa
and Siddaiah knew about the real facts.
One has to appreciate Neelakantappa gang for fooling the
members, the KSTDC, the government and the general public.
What more, Neelakantappa gang has not bothered to hold
general body and elections to this Association from the beginning. Only now,
after our exposures and subsequent stories in other newspapers Neelakantappa is
exposed for what he is. The Neelakantappa gang is hard pressed to explain their
actions, nay their omissions and commissions. Moreover, the Taxi drivers have
come to know the real facts after our exposure and as such have become restive.
Sensing trouble for them in the long run if the law of the land is allowed to
take its course, the Neelakantappa gang held a stage managed general body
meeting and they are also getting the accounts audited (?). This was the first
time the gang was going before the members (?) and defend their misuse,
misappropriation et al.
Interestingly, to prevent more members attending the General
body meeting and force the gang out of their posts, the gang purposely fixed
25th of May, for the general body meeting. The reason
is simple. On 25th May, Meru cabs were scheduled to go in for a colour change
and therefore many of its cabs will be out of action. The Easy Cab which has
lost the licence is taking away its fleet. This makes the KSTDC Taxies getting
more demand and there will a few members who would skip their duties to attend
the General body. This could enable the gang to have their say and continue
with their loot.
Curiously, the Neelakantappa gang issued ID cards and
members had to visit the Association’s unauthorised office in Madhuvan Lodge to
get the ID. Shockingly, the gang did not give notice about the general body
meeting to the members. All they did was display a notice in the KSTDC counter
at BIAL about the general body meeting. This is highly illegal as the rules
stipulate that every member should be given the notice through post and that too
15 days in advance along with the audit report and the agenda. Tomorrow any member can question these serious lapses and can
even get the general body postponed through courts of law.
Interestingly, the venue selected was Kannada Sahitya
Parishat’s auditorium in Chamarajpet. The auditorium is very small and cannot
accommodate more than 100 people while the Association has more than 600
members. Moreover, had the venue be fixed at Yelahanka - Devanahalli route,
more members could have attended the meeting. It is another matter that most of
the members do not know about the general body meeting itself as not even a
single notice was sent by the gang to the members. Infact, the gang has just
started issuing the ID to the members and nobody knows the exact number of
members of this unauthorised association!
But, finally, expecting a backlash, Neelakantappa, Chickmath
and their gang, having called a meeting gang kept away themselves from the
meeting. More than 130 members of the
association had gathered for attending the meeting and they went ahead with the
meeting themselves in the absence of Neelakantappa and gang.
Interestingly, this unauthorised association
functions from unauthorised place other than the address shown in its letter
heads - receipts etc. This Association displays its address as ‘-1418, AECS
Layout, E Block, Kundalahalli, Opp. Brookes Field, Bangalore-37’ but functions
from a room in the Madhuvan Hotel.
One understands that there are laws governing the functions
of the Association in the state. Is it too much to expect the law taking its
own course in respect of the present bogus association?
The General Body Meeting of Bangalore Airport KSTDC Tax Drivers
Welfare Association (Regd) was scheduled to be held on 25th of this month. The
interesting fact about this Association is that it is not a registered one. As
per the information provided by the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Division-3,
there is no association registered under this name!
But
there is one more Association registered in the Labour Commissioner Office. The
name of the Association so registered is “Bangalore Airport Pre Paid Taxi
Drivers Welfare Association”, registered as No.ACL-3/DRT/TUA/CR-01/2002-03
dated 4.4.2002.
Curiously,
the addresses of both the Associations are one and the same, No.1418, AECS
Layout, Opp. Brooke Field, E-Block, Kundalahalli Post, Bangalore - 560037.
One
can suffix the word ‘Registered’ in case of the Prepaid Taxi Drivers Welfare
Association. It is legal. But the same can not be the case with Taxi Drivers
Welfare Association; it is not a registered Association. Moreover,
Neelakantappa gang has collected millions of rupees from the Taxi Drivers on
various pretexts and is now collecting ‘call centre’ charges from the drivers
in the name of the bogus Association. All these are criminal offences.
It
is time that government to act in this regard. And the Neelakantappa gang
should clarify which is the original one they are operating! May be they are
operating in the name bogus Association to avoid the legal consequences!
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