The members of Vikram-Auto Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha (VASSM) warned that they will go on a strike if the Uttarakhand transport department allows the e-rickshaw drivers of Devbhoomi E-rickshaw Welfare Society to operate on the main roads on a trial even for one week.
“We will meet the Superintendent of Police (SP), Traffic on Monday and will discuss about the assurances given by the department to e-rickshaw drivers. If they allow them on the main roads on a trial basis even for one week, we will go on a strike,” said one of the members of VASSM, Vijay Vardhan Dandriyal.
According to him, police has no right to allow the protesting e-rickshaw drivers to operate on the main roads by ignoring the gazette notification issued by the state transport department. If the department will permit the e-rickshaw drivers due to political pressure then unions of auto, bus, vikram, and tata magic will protest against it, he said.
Meanwhile, talking about one week trial of e-rickshaws on the main roads, one of members of Devbhoomi E-rickshaw Welfare Society said, “We met SP, Traffic on Saturday and he assured us that one week trial will be done to check the feasibility of operating the e-rickshaws on the main roads.
We are allowed to run the rickshaws on all the main roads though the entry is still restricted on the main roads from 1 pm to 3 pm and from 5 pm to 7 pm.
They have not accepted all our demands and the talks are still in progress but for now at least we got some positive response from the department,” he added.
The e-rickshaw union member further said that e-rickshaws started operating on the main roads from Sunday and for now their protest has been suspended by the drivers.
Besides, Devbhoomi E-rickshaw Welfare Society will also organise a license camp for the drivers who do not have the valid license to run the rickshaws.