MUMBAI: Nearly One Lakh auto rickshaws went off the roads in Mumbai today during a day-long strike to press for regulation of app-based cab services, the strike hit commuters hard with many stranded in several places. Protesting rickshaw owners and drivers under the Mumbai Autorickshawmen’s Union are demanding effective regulation on business operation of popular app-based taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber including their pricing strategy to attract customers. Union leader Shashank Rao said, “The government has miserably failed to regulate the practice of transportation of passengers via cab services booked through call centres which are making a dent in our business”. And not only this, they are eating into our livelihood without following any rules. We resorted to this strike as we had no option left. The transport ministry has turned a deaf ear to our legitimate demands,” said Rao. A badge must be given to all rickshaw drivers and owners, who are in this business since three years without imposing any restrictions on them, protestors demanded. Currently, there are 1.05 lakh registered rickshaws plying in the city and the Rao-led union claims to have over 90 per cent of them in its fold. Ro added, “Out of these 1.05 lakh registered rickshaws, almost 98,000-99,000 rickshaws are off roads today which shows our strength”. Meanwhile, a senior Transport department official said that it is unfortunate that despite being given an assurance from the government, they went ahead with the strike. He, however, said that the administration has taken ample measures including plying of additional civic BEST buses to ferry commuters who are feeling the pinch due to the stir. “Our administration has already given a free hand to all 27 bus depot managers across the city to operate additional services as per requirement”, Manoj Varade, spokesperson of BEST said.]]>
