Panaji:
Goa's tourist taxi operators on Tuesday ended their two-day strike, but threatened to launch a protest again within a day if their demands were not met by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
Prakash Bandodkar, spokesperson for the striking taxi drivers, told reporters on Tuesday that if Mr Parrikar did not stop private radio taxi operations and act against illegal tourist taxi services started by foreigners, they would go on strike again.
"We are giving the chief minister an ultimatum of 24 hours to agree to our requests," Mr Bandodkar said.
Over 7,000 tourist taxis were off the roads since Monday morning over the two demands.
The strike was first intended to be a one-day affair, but stretched to another day after police baton-charged and fired tear gas shells at agitating taxi drivers on Monday evening as they marched to block a national highway.
"Our demands are simple. But we did not expect police to attack us with lathis (batons) and fire tear gas shells at us. Our strike continued for the second day as a protest against the police action against us," Vinayak Nanoskar, general secretary of the North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners' Association, told IANS.
Mr Parrikar later told reporters at a press briefing at the state secretariat that he has called for a meeting with the taxi drivers Wednesday and that the issue could be resolved within a week.
"But the strike has affected tourism. The taxi drivers should rein in their conduct. They should command and not demand business," Mr Parrikar said, adding that Goa's cabbies needed to learn to face competition.