Over 50,000 taxis remained off the roads here today on the first of the two-day strike called by taxi unions demanding fare hike and designated stands with free parking, causing commuters to face hardship.
“Today’s strike was 100 per cent successful and not only the yellow taxis, but also those under Ola, Uber cab services participated in the bandh,” CITU leader and former labour minister Anadi Sahu told PTI.
“It is the answer of poor people working for the taxi industry to the government’s apathy in addressing their sufferings,” the CITU leader said.
Besides CITU, Bengal Taxi Association has called for the two-day strike. AITUC which stayed away from this bandh however called for another two-day strike on December 28 and 29.
While the Centre has hiked train fares twice, there was nobody to look after the “genuine” demands of cab drivers in the city, Sahu said.
Stating that taxi fares were hiked three years ago, he said, “The Mamata Banerjee government has got funds to help local clubs, but is not interested in looking after our fare hike request.”
“We will wait for the government to respond after the strike ends tomorrow and then take a call on whether to go for an indefinite one,” he said.
Though the state government has amended laws pertaining to taxi refusals and other matters, cases which were slapped on taxi drivers were not withdrawn, he said.
“Cases are pending against 3,000 workers of the taxi industry, while 25 of them are regularly doing the rounds of the courts. We want these cases to be removed…We also demand compensation to the families of the three cabbies who died due to intense heat,” he said.
“They (state government) may have selected locations for taxi stands but we don’t consider them as only a few taxis could be accommodate there,” Sahu added.
Both CITU and Bengal Taxi Association met the state Transport Secretary yesterday with their demands, which according to Sahu was “unsuccessful”.
With the taxi unions refusing to budge from their strike call across the city and the districts of Howrah, Hooghly and both North 24 and South 24 Parganas, commuters are bracing for another round of hardship tomorrow.