Chamling snubs taxi rollback demand

Nirmal Mangar, TT, Gangtok: Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling today said the government would not bow to the demand of on-strike taxi drivers and roll back its decision to outsource ticket payment collection in stands to co-operative societies.

The indefinite taxi strike has come in the middle of the Puja tourist season and may go on for a few days, as the drivers have not decided on any future course of action.

“People from outside Sikkim are involved in almost all the businesses. The majority of the people in the so-called strike are not from Sikkim. We are firm on our decision and will not take it back even if the strike continues for a year,” Chamling said at a basketball tournament in West Sikkim.

He said people were facing problems because of the strike but the decision of the government was for the interest of many unemployed youths of Sikkim.

Taxi drivers under the banner of the All Sikkim Taxi Drivers Association have gone on an indefinite strike from today, demanding that the association’s staff be allowed to operate the counters at the various taxi stands in Sikkim.

Tinku Adhikari, the president of the joint action committee of the taxi association, asked what the drivers would do now when Chamling had refused to relent, said: “We will continue with the strike for few more days. If the government does not respond we will decide what course of action has to be taken.”

The tussle between the drivers and the co-operatives is over who gets to keep the cash that used to be set aside for drivers’ welfare. For every ticket sold, Rs 10 is kept for the fund to pay the staff and the drivers’ welfare. Now the money would go to the local co-operartives.

The rest of the ticket amount the driver gets as his pay for the ride.

Today, private and government buses and a handful taxis ferried tourists and local people. In Singtam and Rangpo in East Sikkim and Geyzing in the west, the drivers decided to keep their vehicles off the road.

The fleet of five private buses, seven government buses and nearly 30 taxis plied to Siliguri carrying the passengers in the morning.

“Some of the taxi drivers decided to carry the passengers despite the strike call. We did not want to stop them and create a law and order problem,” said Adhikari.

Debashish Saha, a tourist from Malda, said: “We have been waiting for vehicles since morning. The ticket counters were closed and none of the drivers wanted to drive.”