Strike brings city commute to its knees

SNS Kolkata, | 05 December, 2015: On the second day of taxi strike commuters continued to suffer and were fleeced by a section of taxi operators who brought out their fleet. Private operators,including Uber, Ola and Merucab, tried to come to the rescue of the harried commuters, but the number of vehicles they could pool together was too little compared to the need.

On a normal day about 60,000 taxis ply, but with over 40,000 off the road, about 6,000 vehicles provided by the private operators was hardly any consolation. Each driver of these agencies made 14 to 18 trips a day from 4 a.m.

Citu-backed taxi unions called the two day taxi strike and members of two major taxi unions in the state RsBengal Taxi Associations and Calcutta Taxi Association Rs have joined the strike. Many members of Progressive Taxi Mens' unions also did not ply their feet. Kolkata Taxi Operators Union, affiliated to AITUC, CPI's labour arm which stayed away from this taxi strike, however, on Friday called for another two-day strike on December 28 and 29.

A section of taxi drivers who brought out their fleet at Howrah and Sealdah railway station and NSCBI airport duped passengers by demanding excessive fare from commuters. Commuters faced tremendous hardships in the city, its outskirts and Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas.

Mr Supratim Chowdhury who arrived at NSCBI Airport from Hyderabad this morning along with her two children said they were stranded at the airport for an hour. Even in the prepaid taxi counter there was a long queue of passengers waiting for taxi, said Mr Chowdhury.

“I got a taxi after a long search and the taxi driver demanded Rs.600 to drop my home at Baghajatin,” said Mr Chowdhury.

“I had to dole out the huge money to reach my home that are double than a normal day,” Mr Chowdhury said. Only six thousands taxi operators who are members of new age taxi operators, including Ola, Uber, live mind solution and book my cab plied their fleet and came forward to drop the commuters at their destinations.

Mr Sukanto Pal along with his family members who arrived at Howrah station said he did not get any taxi and sought the help from police.

“A taxi driver sought Rs.500 to drop my home at sector V in Salt Lake that are double than a normal day and police were mute spectators” rued Mr Pal.

“It is the answer of poor people to the government’s apathy in addressing their sufferings,” said Mr Anadi Sahu, Citu leader and former labour minister of the Left Front government.

Two day taxi strike that began yesterday morning was 100 per cent successful, said Mr Sahu.Very soon taxi operators will stage hunger strike at Esplanade Metro Channel if the state government refuse to resolve the problem of poor taxi operators,Mr Sahu 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.