The commuters continue to face a hard time on Tuesday as the app-based cab services Uber and Ola remained off the roads and only limited vehicles were available in the city.
While the Chandigarh Administration convened a meeting with a delegation of drivers of cab services to resolve the issue of entry fee, the drivers announced to continue their strike over other demands.
The cab aggregators Uber and Ola are in a deadlock with drivers over payment of the ‘entry fee’ being charged by the Chandigarh State Transport Authority (STA). The entry fee is charged from cabs, which are not registered in Chandigarh.
The STA had last week asked both Uber and Ola to pay the unpaid ‘entry fee’.
The Traffic Police had also started challaning cab drivers who didn’t have the receipt of ‘entry fee’ paid for entering the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The strike call given by the cab drivers entered its sixth day at Mohali on Tuesday.
More than 5,000 cabs are plying in the city, catering to the tricity commuters. According to the On Demand Transport Aggregators Rules 2017, except for about 500 cabs registered in the city, an entry fee of Rs 1000 per cab has to be paid every quarter by the aggregators.
The STA had allowed Ola and Uber to offer their can services in 2017 hence the Department is seeking unpaid dues for nine quarters.
During the meeting held with association of cab drivers, Manoj Parida, Adviser to UT Administrator, said that the pending Government revenue has to be paid by the drivers of cabs.
He also said that since the entry fee of Chandigarh is only Rs 333 per month which is much cheaper than the neighbouring states, there should be no reason for the default.
It was decided that all stakeholders may be allowed to make payment of first two quarters of current financial year by February 15 while the remaining needs to be cleared by March 31. After this, a special drive will be started by the Transport and Traffic Police Department to penalize the defaulters for non-payment of entry fee.
After the meeting, Harvinder Singh, president, Cab Operator Social Welfare Association, said, “We will continue the strike.
We have submitted a memorandum of demands to the Chandigarh Administration and will continue the strike till our demands are met.”
While we have been asked to pay the entry fee by the UT Administration, it is the responsibility of the companies to pay the fee, he said.
Another meeting of Administration, representatives of cab companies and drivers should be organized to resolve our issues.
Only then we will decide over ending the ongoing strike, he added.
He alleged that the cab aggregators are exploiting the services of drivers.
Harvinder Singh further said that the drivers’ delegation will also meet Punjab Government to raise their demands.
The demands of striking cab drivers include tax should be same for tricity of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, base fare for ride (0-5 km) should be reserved as Rs 100 and for further ride Rs 15 per km, it should be given to driver, waiting charges (during jam and others) should be Rs 5 per minute, daily allowance should be Rs 2000 per day for outstation and should be given to drivers, no parking fee at public places for cabs, parking space should be arranged for cabs at public places, pick up should not be given more than 2 km, driver insurance should be done by companies, increment policy among others.
