Bangalore: The Autorickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU), under the banner of CITU, will hold a one-day strike on July 22 against the State Government’s decision to permit additional 40,000 autorickshaws in the city.
“We will not operate autorickshaws on Friday (July 22) to oppose the government’s decision of issuing a huge number of new permits. We are expecting full participation from all autorickshaw drivers,” ARDU President Meenakshi Sundaram said.
The union claimed that the government, by allowing additional autos, is facilitating sales of autorickshaws which will benefit companies like Bajaj and TVS.
A number of autorickshaw drivers unions are opposing the government’s move though the
High Court has given a green signal for the introduction of 40,000 new autos in the city.
The union members also opposed the statement of Transport Miniser R Ashok that government’s decision to issue permits to 40,000 additional autorikshaws in the city would make commuting easy, besides reducing the sound and air pollution to a considerable extent.
“The new autorickshaws will only add to the pollution and congestion levels on the roads in Bangalore. There is no scientific backing behind this decision,” the union members said.
Further, they said that the last study on the autorickshaw needs of Bangalore was done in 1997 by IIM following a High Court order. After that, there has been no such initiative, they claimed.
“We have been requesting the Bangalore Urban deputy commissioner and the transport commissioner to hold talks with autorickshaw unions on it, but till now they have not responded to our demand. They are going ahead with the decision based on their whims and fancies,” H G Sreenivasamurthy of ARDU felt. “Our union is opposing the government’s decision as it will lead to chaos, huge reduction in speed and increase in travel time. Such a large addition will affect livelihood of many auto drivers,” he said.-  eb