Nearly one lakh autorickshaws went off the road during a day-long strike on Wednesday hitting commuters hard. The protestors, under the banner of the Mumbai Autorickshawmen’s Union, demanded regulations on operations of app-based taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber.
“The government has failed to regulate the transportation of passengers in cabs, which is making a dent in our business. We resorted to this strike as we had no option left,” said union leader Shashank Rao.
The protesters are also demanding that a badge be given to all rickshaw drivers and owners, who have been in the business for three years, without imposing restrictions on them.
“Out of the 1.05 lakh registered rickshaws plying in the city, almost 98,000-99,000 are off the road today, which shows our strength,” Mr. Rao said.
Meanwhile, a senior transport department official said it is unfortunate that despite being given an assurance from the government, they went ahead with the strike. He, however, said additional BEST buses were operated.
Manoj Varade, spokesperson of BEST undertaking, said, “Our administration has given a free hand to all 27 bus depot managers across the city to operate additional services as per requirements.”
On August 29, two auto and taxi driver unions — Jai Bhagwan Taxi Rickshaw Sangathana and Nitesh Rane-led Swabhimaan Sanghatana — had put on hold their decision till September 1 to go an indefinite strike in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai after the government promised to look into their demands.
Their three demands were to put the operations of app-based cab aggregators on hold till rules and regulations are formulated by the government; that they should be asked to ply outside the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and they should be under the ambit of RTO rules and regulations.
