Light at the end of the tunnel for rent-a-cabs?

the goan I network
PANAJI
Rent-a-cab operators who have for long been waging a legal battle in order to secure a licence to operate believe that the light at the end of the tunnel is near as the process for the examination of their licences has begun.  
Speaking to The Goan, Ramdas Palkar, president of North Goa Rent a Cab Association has said that they have been told that their applications are being processed and by the first week of February they should be issued.  
Once issued, it will bring to a close a long-pending demand of the North Goa Rent a Cab Association including several petitions before the Bombay High Court at Goa.  
The rent-a-cab operators witnessed several false dawns with successive governments promising to issue them licences to allow them to carry out their businesses legally but only to stall out of fear of reprisals from the powerful taxi lobby.  
What significantly worked in their favour was the HC’s observation that the state government has “no power” to impose a moratorium on the rent-a-cab scheme of the central government.  
Earlier the state government’s Transport Department used to reject applications on grounds that “the government has taken a decision to keep such proposal of rent-a-cab in abeyance. This policy decision of the government has not been reviewed and the said decision is still in force.”  
“No specific provision under the Act of 1988 is shown under which power is conferred on the state to suspend the scheme framed by the central government applicable all over the country. Even assuming power to frame additional rules exists in the state, nothing is shown how the state can suspend the application of the scheme itself,” the court observed while noting that the state had no powers and yet had persisted with its position for several years and pointed out how the petitioners were forced to approach the High Court three times.