Commuters faced hardship on Monday to get to their offices or desired locations on time, due to autorickshaw and cab unions’ strike. The unions are demanding a subsidy on the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and a fare revision in the wake of rising fuel prices.
The impact of the strike was visible as autos, cabs, feeder buses were hardly available at transport hubs like railway stations, Inter State Bus Terminals (ISBTs) and Metro stations across the city in the morning and during peak hours.
Many passengers complained that they had to wait a long time for Ola and Uber cabs, and added that those were available at inflated rates. People who were most affected by the strike were those who arrived in Delhi-NCR from other States through rail, bus or other modes. Nalini Mitra, a software employee in Gurugram said, “The Government must listen to the demand of the union and solve the issue as fast as it possible because there are thousands of people depending on public transport. How many of us have their personal vehicles? I travel from Greater Noida 1 to Sector 52 Metro to reach Gurugram by Metro.
“Today, I had to pay `200 for auto to reach at the metro while usually it cost me `20 in sharing. Why is the transport sector taking people to ransom? There is no proper management from one end to another and for that reason, citizens are suffering,” she said.
The call of the taxi drivers has got many people irritated as they were not able to reach office on time. Mohammed Azad, another commuter and an employee in a multinational company, resident of New Ashok Nagar, said that the strike of the drivers is unwarranted. “We are already suffering salary cut and inflation.
And now this strike is killing us. It is already 11 am and I am still here trying to get an auto to reach metro. I have been trying for an hour almost but they are demanding 5 times more than that of the actual fare due to less number of autos on road.
The daily expenses of travel have jumped to four times for a salaried person. The government must first resolve the strike and also deal with the other transport unions so that there are no hardships for the common man."
“I usually take shared auto from Qutab Minar Metro Station to reach my office near Mehrauli Bus Depot but today I could not found any vehicle outside the station premises. I waited for DTC buses but they all were in full capacity.
Lastly, after waiting for nearly 45 minutes for public transport, I decided to reach office on my own feet. Since my office is located far away from the metro station, it took another 45 minutes to reach office.
Sordid state of affair was that there was no arrangement of transport by agencies for daily commuter like me who comes all along from neighbouring Gurgaon to Delhi to attend office,” said Shubham Sharma, employee in a private organization.Small protests were also witnessed at number of places, including Kashmere Gate ISBT, Rani Bagh, Civil Lines, New Delhi Railway Station auto stand. In Delhi there are over 90,000 autos and more than 80,000 registered taxis complementing the public transport system.
According to the Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh General Secretary Rajendra Soni, "Our strike has started and it will continue throughout the day. CNG has become costlier and we cannot keep running our business on losses. We should either be provided a subsidy of Rs 35 per kg on CNG or fares should be hiked."
The auto, taxi and cab drivers also sat on a dharna near Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence at Civil Lines later in the day to press their demands.
