Phuket Taxi Protesters Tell Policeman to Move Over His 'Unapproved' Rival Rank

[admin]

PHUKET: About 200 local Phuket taxi drivers staged a public protest yesterday afternoon over a Phuket policeman they say was setting up a rival taxi rank at a beach.

The policeman, Lieutenant Colonel Anan Kobkeittawin, had threatened to make arrests and create difficulties for the existing local taxi drivers in the village of Kamala, north of Patong on Phuket's holiday west coast, the protesters alleged

The demonstrators, who massed near the police station to make their protest, made two demands:

..that Lieutenant Colonel Anan be transferred from Kamala immediately;

..that the alternative taxi rank be closed down straight away.

Talks with local leaders, Kamala mayor Karoon Sriden and the village chief, Santi Sanya, went on for several hours, into the evening.

Lieutenant Colonel Anan said that it would take him a couple of days to make alternative arrangements about the taxi rank.

After hours of talks, he agreed to shut down the taxi rank, but said he intended to maintain his illegal souvenir shop on Kamala beach.

''Everybody makes their own way in business at Kamala,'' he said. ''If I stop my business on the beach everybody must stop, because they are all breaking the law.''

Lieutenant Anan is to move to Phuket City Police Station from today.

Most of the Kamala''taxis,'' as with many other holiday destinations on Phuket, are private vehicles that are not registered or obliged to follow regulations governing taxi safety and maintenance.

Under enforced monopoly arrangements, the fares charged by local taxis all over Phuket are set so high that most drivers can make a comfortable living on just one or two fares a day.

Tour operators are unable to pick up customers at many resorts on Phuket for fear of violence from the local taxi drivers.

At least one of Kamala's top five-star resorts has set up its own branded beach club on the sand at Kamala beach.

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Edited February 7, 2012 by FarangFarang