The members of Vikram-Auto Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha (VASSM) do not want e-rickshaws to operate on the main roads because they are not earning extra by overcrowding their vehicles as in the past, alleged the members of Devbhoomi e-rickshaw welfare society.
VASSM has warned to go on a strike if any amendments are made in the gazette notification issued by the state transport department in which the entry of e-rickshaws is banned on the main roads. As per the members, if the department will allow the e-rickshaw drivers on the main roads they will protest against it.
On this, the members of e-rickshaw union said that the members of VASSM are infuriated since the operators of buses and Vikrams are not getting to overload their vehicles as much as they did before the operation of e-rickshaws started in the city.
According to the secretary of the e-rickshaw union Santosh Kumar, “Everyone is earning sufficiently, be it drivers of the Vikrams, auto rickshaws or city bus operators but the point is they are not earning extra as they were accustomed to by overcrowding their vehicles or charging extra from the passengers. Since an electric rickshaw cannot accommodate more than four passengers at a time, we do not wait for it to get overloaded and immediately head off to the destination after picking up passengers.”
“We do not have any problem with any member of other unions, we want to operate our e-rickshaws beside them but if they want to protest against us then we cannot do anything. The department has allowed us to operate and the department itself will take care of the other unions too. We hope the right decision will be taken by the state transport department,” said a member of e-rickshaw union Satyaveer Arya.
He further added that Vikrams do not have stage carriage permit but they still pick up the passengers in between stops across the city. Besides this, there are number of rules which are being violated by the members of VASSM and hopefully the department will look into this matter too, he said.
However, according to one of the members of VASSM, Vijay Vardhan Dandriyal, the members of e-rickshaw union are lying about getting the permission from the department to operate the electric rickshaw on trial basis for one week on the main roads. He said that the union members will meet the Superintendent of Police (SP), Traffic, on Tuesday and will hear out his take on the matter and only after that, they will decide whether to go on strike or not.
He said he is hopeful that the SP, Traffic, would not have permitted e-rickshaws on the main roads because according to him the police do not have the rights to ignore the gazette notification.