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The Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association, representing 36 bus, taxi and goods vehicle unions, called off their strike on Monday afternoon after Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy accepted most of their demands.
Reddy, while visiting the protesters at Freedom Park, promised to crack down on taxi aggregator apps operating illegally and agreed to formulate a committee to implement the ‘one airport one fare’ model for taxis. However, he rejected three essential demands—withdrawal of the Shakti scheme (free travel for women on buses), exemption from life tax for vehicles priced between Rs 10-15 lakh, and a monthly grant of Rs 10,000 for autorickshaw drivers to make up for the losses incurred because of the scheme—the last of which was later withdrawn by the autorickshaw drivers’ union.
“It is a welcome move, because the minister has promised to fulfil the demands in public before the transport operators and drivers,” said Nataraj Sharma, president of the federation.
According to the federation’s members, around 10,000 autorickshaw drivers participated in the protest, around 1.4 lakh drivers refused to hit the roads, and 5,000-10,000 drivers plied on the roads only for short-distance travel. Around 800 airport taxis also joined the protest.
“The transport operators want a development authority to be set up. This will be fulfilled. They want an Indira canteen at the airport and I have already given the direction to the BBMP to fast-track the process. The transport operators also demanded housing facilities for drivers, for which I will speak to (Housing Minister) Zameer Ahmed Khan. Other demands like withdrawal of the Shakti scheme, life tax exemption and monthly grants cannot be fulfilled. The proceedings of the demands will be passed to the transport commissioner tomorrow,” the transport minister said.
Reddy also agreed to seek the help of Nataraj Sharma, president of the federation, and appoint a senior advocate to fight the legal battle against Ola, Uber and Rapido. “The matters related to aggregator apps are in the judiciary. We will take the help of Nataraj Sharma and other senior counsel to vacate the stay order given to the aggregator apps. We will take action against the illegal operations of bike taxis and white-board taxis, including Rapido and Zoom, among others,” said Reddy,
The minister also said the government would launch a state-owned aggregator app in two months.
Reddy said the government would implement the Vidya Nidhi scheme, scholarships for children of autorickshaw and taxi drivers from Class 1, which was earlier applicable to students after Class 10. He also said the allocation for the scheme would be hiked from Rs 4 crore to Rs 17 crore.
Raghu Narayana Gowda, president of the Peace Auto Drivers Union, said, “The protest has been successful and the minister has accepted most of our demands. We withdrew the demand of monthly grants considering the financial burden on the exchequer. Instead, we asked the minister to form a transport operators development board to help the drivers in times of crises.”
“Moreover, we are not demanding a ban on Ola and Uber apps. All we are asking is for the aggregators to comply with the government rules and keep consistent fares. We are glad the transport minister promised to crack down on such violations,” he added.
Netizens trend #StopGoondaism
As videos of protesters harassing Rapido “captains” (bike taxi driver) and cab drivers went viral on social media, netizens called out the harassment by trending the hashtag #StopGoondaism. Protesters harassed a cab driver in Gandhinagar. They snatched the car’s keys and deflated one of its tyres. In another incident, near the Madiwala underpass, a Rapido captain was roughed up by autorickshaw drivers and made to apologise for using the bike taxi app. The protesters also vandalised his bike.
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