Autorickshaw driver's joint coordination committee has threatened to intensify their ongoing indefinite strike, which is now mainly confined to city limits, and expand it across the district from Saturday after they failed to receive any assurance from the District Collector on their demands.
However, District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareeth said no meeting was convened on Friday evening with the striking unions. He said that they merely dropped in to handover a petition enlisting their grievances and demands, which he agreed to forward to the authorities concerned.
The Collector said he had not asked the unions to call off the strike. K.R. Saju of the AITUC-affiliated Auto Drivers Federation said all the unions were united in going ahead with the strike and that there was no question of calling it off before getting some assurances from the authorities.
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“We had asked the Collector to at least take steps to put an end to the harassment of drivers by the police on account of metre fare. But the Collector could not give any assurance before discussing the matter with the police,” he said.