Disaster - a greener pasture for Cabbies

          With the beginning of the new year (fire male monkey year) 2016, our country has been facing series of natural calamities which most were far beyond human control. The forest fire - it hit the national headlines with thousands of acres of forest being destroyed in a wink of time. But thanks to our great leaders. Their leadership was enough inspiration for our people to unit and combat any mishaps.  Bhutan lost a large forest cover to fire, however, with all the possible help and support from the police, army personnel, Dessups and public, the destruction could be minimized.

        And now, with the season ripening to a harsh summer, our darling country is going through rough times. With incessant rainfall, rivers are raging through the delicate valleys. Most parts of the country faced series of roadblocks, floods and landslides. Students took all the risks to report to the schools and Colleges. Patients had to be carried on the back through rough and unfriendly weather. But thanks to our father, our savior and the godfather, our king has been personally assessing and visiting the affected sites and monitoring the situations. Despite the worse monsoon, not many human casualties reported. No doubt, Bhutan is in the safe hands. And we take pride to have our king at the forefront of all the dangers. 

          But how sad it is that this rough time has given a lot of good times for some group of people. 

         The recent headlines in the medias has really upset whole lot of people. Even our prime minister has been so concerned with the move taken by some cab owners, especially in Thimphu and Phuntsholing.  When our people need them, when it is the time we come together and unite, it is disheartening that they have already taken advantage of the situations. From the recent reports by BBS, most of the Taxi operators in Thimphu has increased the fare by three folds to reach Phuntsholing. When the actual fare is just Nu. 500, they now demand Nu. 1500. 

       What kind of humanity is this? What kind of people are we? And what kind of motive are we driven with?

         Even though there were reports of unchanging price of vegetables in Thimphu, there were few cases where the price of chilli was increased from Nu. 40/kg to Nu.150/kg. People were helpless, they didn't have a choice with the chilli from India being banned. Loads of bad times came together, and we had no alternatives, but to digest.

         I find this very ruthless and disturbing. It is infact the saddest incidents that we are confronted with today. We agree and admit that most of the cab operators volunteer during the special occasion to pick and drop people for free. Did these same people come into the play? There's a lot of thing we need to ask ourselves before doing anything. 

          We live in a very small society. We are so small that we know each other so well. We need each other, but why this big play when we need each other the most? These are not millionaires traveling down, they are students. We agree that it's okay to increase the fare, because considering the danger and the difficulties, it looks authentic. But increasing by three folds. this is a daylight robbery!!! 

           And now we live in a situation where our own people rob us. How sad it looks!!!

         Anyways, big thanks to RSTA. They are confronting this serious sickness in our mentality. They have understood this as a wrong-doing and come to the rescue of the commoner. They stand behind us and we believe in them. What we do is just a simple call to the RSTA office and report the Cab Reg. number. We can't be treated this way, especially in the bad times. And it's time we fight against this injustice. 

        MAY THE JUSTICE WINS!!!