Autorickshaw owners and drivers in the district have planned to stage a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Tuesday demanding the withdrawal of the January 9 fare revision notification reducing the autorickshaw fares.
Despite repeated pleas, neither the Regional Transport Authority nor the Deputy Commissioner have positively responded to the operators’ demand to minimise the quantum of reduction and hence the decision to stage a dharna, said Mohammed Ansar, General Secretary of CITU-backed autorickshaw drivers’ Union.
If the DC does not respond to the dharna too, the operators would resort to an indefinite strike of autorickshaw services in the district from Wednesday, Mr. Ansar told The Hindu .
In the recent meeting with the operators, Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim had rejected the operators’ demand to fix the minimum fare at Rs. 23 as against Rs. 20 while retaining per km fare at Rs. 13. He gave another option to operators—minimum fare at Rs. 22 and per km fare at Rs. 12, which was rejected by the operators thereby continuing the deadlock.
