BENGALURU: The transport department has issued notices to ride-hailing app services Ola and Uber for not cooperating in disabling child lock in vehicles operating under the platforms. Officials say only 20% of the city’s about one-lakh cabs have disabled the child lock, which is considered as a threat for lone women passengers.“Ola and Uber are showing no interest to ensure their driver partners disable the child lock system. We have issued notices to both the cab aggregators , asking why their licence should not be revoked for not complying with the new rules,” Narayana Swamy, additional commissioner for transport (enforcement), told ET.The department, Swamy said, has removed the child-lock feature from about 22,000 cabs that had not disabled it and has penalised owners. “During the inspection in the last 3-4 days, we found that almost 95% of the cabs continue to have the feature. We have constituted 11 teams, each comprising three members, to check cabs on different stretches in the city,” he said.Swamy said they are strictly overseeing the checking drive as the high court had directed the child lock be removed in cabs. “The next hearing is scheduled for January 23. We have to produce before the court the action taken by us,” he said. He added about 60,000 cabs in the city operate under app-based platforms such as Ola and Uber. “The support of cab aggregators is important for the success of the drive to remove child lock.”Both Ola and Uber did not respond to ET’s queries on what measures they are taking to comply with the high court order.C Nanjundappa, who works for a car rental service in Bengaluru, urged the department to give more time for cab drivers to disable the child-lock. “I had to visit the Regional Transport Office (RTO) of Jayanagar twice to get my car’s child lock removed but there was a long queue. As the RTO issues a certificate to validate that the feature is removed, it was worth the wait,” he said.He, however, said each state is following different rules and it could put the drivers who drive to different states in trouble. “I am told that the child lock is a must in Kerala, but it’s being banned in Karnataka. The central government should come up with a uniform rule for all states,” he said.Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Bengaluru Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association ( BTTOA ), termed the ban on child lock in commercial passenger vehicles as illogical. “The new rule, introduced to address concerns of women, is most likely to put children travelling in cabs at risk,” he said. “The department should clarify who will be held responsible if the child opens the door at a traffic signal and falls off the vehicle,” Holla said.He said the association is contemplating to file a petition in the court. “Safety of women could be addressed through stringent punishments and faster conviction of offenders. We do not see a logic in banning child lock, which was introduced keeping in mind the safety of children and senior citizens,” he said.