The autorickshaw union in Pune, led by Baghtoy Rickshawala Forum, has announced a strike near the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in the city. Earlier, a similar strike was called by the autorickshaw drivers on Nov 28 but it was abandoned shortly after the government promised to resolve their issues by Dec 10.
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The auto union has declared that no autorickshaws would ply in the city from today. The reason behind this strike is the bike taxis, which according to the autorickshaw drivers are operating “illegally” and causing a harm to their business. The auto union wants action against bike taxis by the RTO department with a demand to permanently suspend their operations.
“It has become clear that the RTO officials do not have any willpower to take action against the illegal bike taxis. The committee which was formed after our last agitation has not done any work. Hence, we have no option but to resume the agitation,” said Keshav Nana Kshirsagar, who heads the Forum.
The RTO, under pressure from the protest by the auto-rickshaw drivers’ union, ran multiple drives in the last few years against these bike taxi operators, especially Rapido. The transport department seized over hundred motorcycles of Rapido for a month while imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 on them.
There are more than 1 lakh registered autos in Pune and most of them started in 2017 when the Maharashtra government lifted the ban on the issuance of fresh rickshaw permits. With so much competition as compared to the demand, the matter became even worse with the introduction of mobile app-based taxi services (Ola and Uber) a few years ago. The final nail in the coffin was the plying of bike taxis in the city by cellphone-based booking companies such as Rapido.
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