Bengaluru: The State transport department has stated that it will come hard on app-based taxi services like Ola and Uber from May 1, if they don’t follow the set of rules the government notified in April this year.

State Transport Commissioner Rame Gowda, said that aggregators must obtain licenses under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rule of 2016.

“The companies are yet to complete the formalities even after the rule was enforced on April 2. These companies used to blame us for not having a legal framework for governing their operation. They claimed that they are providing services cheaper than autorickshaws, but are fooling the commuters,” he said.

The State government has started seizing the taxis and if found at fault, are levied heavy fines.

This has left the cab drivers in a fix, who claim that they shouldn’t be fined and it should be the companies they work for.