The Telangana State Cabs and Bus Operators Association on Friday demanded that the State Government restore the cancelled Ration Cards of all cab drivers.
In a representation made with Civil Supplies Commissioner C.V. Anand, TSCBOA president Syed Nizamuddin said that the Civil Supplies Department has cancelled the Ration Cards of individuals who owns a car as they do not meet the new eligibility criteria. However, he said that there was a difference between a “Car Owner” and “Cab Owner”.
“In view of various self-employment schemes launched by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and other departments and also due to the growth in transport industry, hundreds of youth have purchased new vehicles by taking loans from banks or other financial institutions. They engage their vehicles with various organisations, cab operators or Mobile App Based Aggregators to earn their livelihood under ‘Driver-cum-Owner’ scheme,” Syed Nizamuddin said.
The TSCBOA president said that total monthly earnings of owner-cum-drivers gets split into payment of EMI, expenditure on vehicle maintenance, payment of taxes, etc., After all these deductions, they get very little amount in their hand to feed their poor families. Therefore, it will be unfair to treat these poor ‘cab owners’ on par with ‘car owners’, he said.
“For drivers, vehicle is a mean of livelihood and not luxury. Almost all drivers are in huge debts and putting in huge efforts and hard work to earn their livelihood. All their cabs are hypothecated to banks or finance firms. They are not the absolute owners of those cars,” Syed Nizamuddin said.
Therefore, the Association urged the Civil Supplies Commissioner to restore the cancelled Ration Cards of drivers. (NSS)