India orders Uber taxis out, again

Authorities in New Delhi are moving to enforce a ban on digital taxi dispatcher Uber after the U.S. firm ignored orders to close down at the end of last year.

Uber and its Indian rival Ola Cabs were told to cease operations in December, after an Uber driver was charged with raping a passenger. Uber connects passengers to drivers via a smartphone app.

Uber was criticized for failing to conduct adequate background checks on its drivers after it was alledged that the driver had assaulted women before. Uber then applied for a license to operate as a radio taxi company, and stayed in operation.

Application rejected

But authorities rejected Uber's application in January, citing “discrepancies.” They ordered further details.

"We banned them, but they were still continuing in contravention of our order," Delhi's deputy commissioner of transport S. Roy Biswas said on Wednesday.

Uber and Ola now have comply with the original order before their license applications are processed any further. Last month municipal authorities asked the central government to block the Uber app on data networks.

The New Delhi ban is only the latest in a series of roadblocks for Uber. This week, UN Women, a United Nations body for gender quality, pulled the plug on a job-creation scheme with Uber. Elsewhere, the service has created controversy with regulators and taxi drivers associations.

jd/uhe (Reuters, AFP)