Taxis, autos on strike in Delhi tomorrow

By NewsGram Staff-Writer

State wide autos and taxis are going on a day's strike in the capital tomorrow. Opposing the AAP government's new taxi scheme the auto rickshaw and taxi driver union would join the nationwide strike of 10 central unions starting from September 2.

The Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh and Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union have decided to support BJP-backed Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) in the strike by ensuring that no auto and taxi would be seen on Delhi's roads on Wednesday. There are around 90,000 auto rickshaws, 35,000 All-India Tourist Permit vehicles and approximately 15,000 yellow and black taxis in the city.

Vice-president of BMS, Rajendra Soni alleging government's new scheme as 'anti-driver' said, "The new policies will have an adverse effect on the existing drivers, who already are struggling to attain their needs. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal came to power with the support of Delhi's auto and taxi drivers and now he is endangering existence of the very same people."

The new radio taxi scheme announced by the Delhi government last month comprises accommodating small vehicles for improving last mile connectivity in the city. It lays down vehicles between 600 to 749 CC on roads under the banner of transport department. The taxis will aim to provide comforts of car ride at standard government fares.

Soni also claimed that the capital's roads are already crowded with a huge number of transport vehicles and the new scheme will make further create a space crunch on the roads of Delhi. He said, "We are already facing a tough competition from the private taxi operators like Uber and Ola and this new amendment would further choke our survival."

Further Mr. Soni talked about the ignorance they faced from the government. He claimed to have written about the issue to Mr. Kejriwal on August 16, but said he got no reply on his query. Unlike having a talk with the union, the government didn't even bother to answer. He threatened that if the administration does not look into the issue after coming Wednesday's evening, they will stop the operation of taxi and auto-rickshaw in Delhi between 4 and 10 P.M.