lakhs of Mumbaikars were inconvenienced on Wednesday, as nearly one lakh autorickshaw drivers pulled out their vehicles from the roads in the metropolis to press for the regulation of App—based cab services as part of their day-long strike.
The autorickshaw drivers owing allegiance to the Mumbai Autorickshawmen’s Union have for some time demanding effective regulation of business operations of popular app—based taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber including their pricing strategy to attract customers.
Currently, there are 1.05 lakh registered rickshaws in the city. “Out of these 1.05 lakh registered rickshaws, almost 98,000—99,000 rickshaws were off roads on Wednesday which shows our strength,” Mumbai Autorickshawmen’s Union leader Shashank Rao said.
Talking to mediapersons, Rao charged that the State Government had failed to to regulate the practice of transportation of passengers via cab services booked through call centres
“Given that there is no regulation, our business has been affectedly badly. These cabs are eating into our livelihood without following any rules. We had no alternative but to resort to this kind of an agitation to draw the State Government’s attention. Despite our repeated pleas, the State Transport ministry has not bothered to look into our grievances,”Rao said.
Apart from demanding the regulation of operations by Cab services, the autorickshaw drivers are also demanding that a badge be given to all rickshaw drivers and owners, who are in this business for the past three years without imposing any restrictions on them.
Meanwhile, the Mumbaikars using App-based Ola and Uber cabs were in for a pleasant surprise, as the cabwallahs charged half rates for the trips undertaken by them across the metropolis.
“Since autorickshaws were off the roads, I felt that it would be difficult for me hire a Uber cab. But very easily I could hire a cab from Thane to Andheri where I was going to meet a friend.And I paid mere Rs 200, half the normal cab hire rate to go Andheri. May be, the cabwallahs were out to please their regular users on a autorickshaws strike day today,” said Ravinder Bhela,a resident of Thane, said.