The impasse between taxi operators and the West Bengal government will continue as the representatives of the trade union and the city police have failed to come to any consensus here on Saturday.
A delegation of the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) leaders spearheading the movement met Commissioner of Police, Kolkata Surajit Kar Purkayastha. But the meeting failed to bring good news for commuters in the State.
50,000 taxis have remained off the road in the city for the past three days. The ordeal for commuters was compounded on Saturday as heavy showers lashed the city throughout the day, and large parts of central Kolkata faced severe traffic snarls due to a demonstration by Jadavpur University students.
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The city is likely to have more showers in the next 24 hours.
“We demanded from Mr. Purkayastha that false cases slapped on 22 taxi drivers be withdrawn,” Nawal Kishor Shrivastav, general secretary of the Kolkata Taxi Operator’s Union, affiliated to AITUC told The Hindu . The delegation has also demanded that a fine of Rs.3, 000 slapped on taxi drivers for passenger refusal has to be revoked.
Mr. Srivastav also said that the Police Commissioner told them that he will look into the matter. “We have told Mr. Purkayastha that the police have to take responsibility of about 800 taxies it toed away in Kolkata and the adjoining areas.” To condemn the alleged apathy of the State government towards the plight of taxi drivers, the protesters took off their shirts and resorted to bare-bodied protest.
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