VICTORIAS TROT INTO PAGES OF HISTORY

MUMBAI: Mumbai's iconic horsedriven carriages, famed as 'Victorias', are all set to pass into the pages of history as Maharashtra government gears up to rehabilitate the carriage owners and operators. The cabinet decision will affect 91 Victoria owners and 130 drivers.

Mumbai's iconic horse-driven carriages, famed as 'Victorias', are all set to pass into the pages of history as the Maharashtra government gears up to rehabilitate the carriage owners and operators. The decorated and lit-up carriages with the rhythmic trots of the horses which pull them had been a familiar sight on the roads of south Mumbai since colonial times, as visitors and locals queued up for joyrides in them.

The Bombay High Court order in 2015 had signalled the end of the road for these carriages when it ruled that their operation amounted to cruelty to animals, thus leaving scores of families who eked a living out of them in the lurch.

As part of the rehabilitation plan approved by the state cabinet on Monday, the government will offer those affected by the ban with hawking licenses with Rs 1 lakh as seed funding or Rs 3 lakh as one-time settlement, an official said here.

The cabinet decision will affect 91 Victoria owners and 130 drivers, he said.

However, carriage owners claimed that around 800 families were directly and indirectly dependent on the carriage business for employment.

The High Court had also slammed the state government in February over the slow pace of rehabilitation of the affected people and directed it to speed up its efforts. The government then sought some more time to work out the rehabilitation package. Animal rights NGO PETA, quoting the information from the office of Mumbai's joint commissioner of police (traffic), said the licences issued for 130 horse-drawn carriages in 2011 and 2012 had expired by 2013.

But with no other way to make the ends meet, some of the coachmen continued to take the carriages out for rides. It said since July 2016, nine ailing horses have been seized by the Mumbai police and Animal Welfare Board of India's inspectors.