The autorickshaw drivers attached to the pre-paid counter at the Railway Station in Thampanoor are set to go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday onwards, in protest against the Railway’s demand for a fee from them, for making use of Railway property for parking their vehicles.
Around 300 autorickshaw drivers here, under the aegis of joint committee of four trade unions – CITU, INTUC, AITUC and BMS- will go on strike, demanding the Railway to rollback its decision.
Till now, the drivers did not have to pay any fee to the Railway authorities for parking facilities. Now, a fee of ₹10 per day has been demanded from each of them. According to autorickshaw drivers here, it is an unfair move on the part of a public utility like the Railways.
“This is a public property and all of us here are serving the public with our rickshaws. We are already struggling to make at least ₹500-600 profits per day. Why are they trying to take away from our meagre savings? They will start with ₹10 and then keep on increasing it. Also, we don’t remain parked here for long. So the parking fee is unfair,” says Rajan, an autorickshaw driver here.
The drivers say that the flow of passengers has reduced ever since the shifting of the pre-paid counter from in front of the Railway Station to a side, last year.
“We have been running trips from the counter ever since it opened in the early 1990s. Even for shifting of the counter, the Railways did not consult us. They only held a meeting with some taxi drivers. ,” says D.Raghuvaran, unit secretary of the AITUC. But Railway officials maintain that most other stations have such a fee for the use of their property. “The fee is for making exclusive use of an area. So it is justified. Only the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Railway stations do not have such a fee. It is a meagre amount, which comes to just ₹300 per month. Already, a handful of drivers have approached us expressing willingness to avail the permit after paying the fee. We have anyway called for one more meeting with the drivers on Tuesday,” said a top Railway official.
