September 20 was the first day of the strike called by the Jharkhand State Diesel Auto Drivers Federation in the State capital. The people of the city suffered the most as the auto-rickshaws are believed to be the heart of the public transport, which stopped beating on Friday.
Commuters were seen waiting for an auto at different places in the city on Friday, they did not have any alternative as the city buses run in some particulars routes only and on Friday the buses were also overloaded.
“I use the auto-rickshaw daily to commute to my office in Purulia Road and due to the strike I am left with no other alternative but to take a lift and reach the office,” said Sajeev Singh, a resident of Harmu.
Sandeep Pandey, a resident of Katatoli said, “The buses were overcrowded due the strike of auto-rickshaw’s, there was not even space to stand.”
The Auto Drivers Federation has kept their demands infront of the State officials but none of the demands have been entertained. Not even a single State Official has come forward to resolve the issue.
The Auto Drivers Federation are having a list of demands, issuing Permits to all the Auto drivers as soon as possible and if not cancel the 2335 permits issued till date, issuing batch numbers to all the Auto drivers then only they will wear the uniform and decreasing the number of traffic police station from 4 to 1 are some of the major demands among them.
“Unless the State Government issues permits and batch numbers to all the Auto drivers and illegal recovery of money done by the police officials is stopped, we will not take back the strike” said Abhimanyu Kumar, Executive President of the Jharkhand State Diesel Auto Drivers Federation.
He further added, “They will carry on the fast and strike until their demands are met.”
“Police officials are not willing to pay, when asked for money they give us threats by the name of Police Station due to which the public also feel cheated” said Santosh Singh, an Auto driver.
When asked about what steps taken by the Traffic Police to tackle the situation, Traffic SP, Rajiv Ranjan replied, “They are increasing the trips of city buses and from September 21, routes of the buses will also increase so that the public do not face any problem. The public faced a bit of problem on Friday but traffic remained smooth as there were no Auto rickshaws on the roads of the city.”
On the demands of the Auto rickshaw Federation he replied, “Their demands are baseless and they themselves are divided into two groups, one of groups has asked for protection for running their Auto rickshaws from Saturday.”