People stranded as autos, taxis on strike in Delhi

Minister claims strike sponsored by BJP.

Protesting against app-based taxi services, city’s autorickshaw and taxi unions went on an indefinite strike on Tuesday, paralysing the city. The unions said 11 members of their joint action committee will launch a hungerstrike outside chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Wednesday. The AAP government claimed the strike was sponsored by the Opposition BJP.

The strike, called by the joint action committee formed by 20 auto and yellow top taxi unions, left thousands of commuters stranded at various places, including railway stations, ISBTs, airport and Metro stations. The committee claimed about 85,000 auto-rickshaws and 15,000 yellow-black taxis participated in the strike.

Rajendra Soni, a member of the committee, said the strike would continue till the city government takes strict action against the “operations of Ola and Uber which don’t have permits from the transport department to ply in the national capital.”

Some protesting drivers were spotted preventing taxis and autorickshaws from ferrying passengers at the New Delhi Railway Station and other railway and Metro stations. Rajesh Sharma, who with his sister Rekha, arrived at the New Delhi Railway Station from Patna on Tuesday morning, said he waited for one-and-a-half-hours but could not find a single autorickshaw or taxi for his uncle’s house in Patparganj, East Delhi.

The Delhi government said it had deployed additional 300 buses from ISBTs and railway stations. “All regional and depot managers are on line in their respective regions to ensure smooth operation of buses in Delhi and NCR,” the DTC said and issued a toll free number (1800118181) for any kind of inquiry regarding its buses.

“The operations of Uber and Ola are illegal as they don’t have permits to run their taxis in Delhi, but despite that the government is allowing them to take away our livelihood,” said Mr Soni, whose unions — Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union and Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh — are backed by the RSS.

Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain called the strike “BJP-sponsored” and said despite requesting the lieutenant-governor and the Delhi police commissioner, no appropriate arrangements were made to ensure commuters did not face any problem while using public transport.

“The strike has been managed by the BJP. It is BJP-sponsored,” he said.

Mr Jain claimed only two to four per cent of the auto-rickshaw drivers were on strike and accused the police of not taking any action against rowdy elements, claiming the cops knew that “they (the strikers) are from the BJP.”

It’s perhaps for the first time that the unions, affiliated to rival political parties like the BJP and the Congress, came together and given a joint call for a strike in the city.

A senior government official said many auto drivers had called up to say they were being threatened that the roof cover of their autos would be cut if they dared to ply their vehicles, which could cost them at least `5,000.

A government spokesperson said banning the operations of app-based cab services did not come under the ambit of the city administration and instead the Centre should do something. “The operations of Ola and Uber are illegal in Delhi as they don’t have permit from the Delhi transport department to ply their taxis. We have already written to the Centre to block server of Uber, but the Union government said that it cannot do so as its main server is in the USA. During the second phase of odd-even scheme, the chief minister had also threatened to take action against app-based cab services over complaints of surge pricing,” the official said.