Hyderabad: Telangana state Taxi and Drivers’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) and Auto Drivers’ JAC staged a protest in front of the Road Transport Authority (RTA) commissioner’s office, on Monday, against the centre’s policies and the state’s negligence towards the workers.
“The strike is to fight for rightful implementation of policies, including increasing auto fares, issue of auto permits, reduction of increased insurance, setting up of auto drivers’ welfare board, ban on illegally running autos in other districts and the issue of 20,000 auto permits in Greater Hyderabad city,” said All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), state secretary, B Venkatesam.
They argued that although the central government had approved the Taxi aggregator police in 2020, the state has failed to ensure its implementation.
The Indian government has defined the meaning of aggregator, through Motor Vehicle aggregator guidelines, as digital mediators or marketplaces for passengers to connect with a driver for the intent of transportation.
“The unions have been fighting for their rights. We have been trying to communicate with the state however we have been denied appointments, time and again, with commissioners and ministers, so far,” founder and state president of Telangana Four Wheel Drivers’ Association Shaik Salauddin, told Siasat.com.
With increasing prices of diesel and petrol, cab drivers are facing financial troubles as 20-30 percent, a major part of their earnings is absorbed by cab aggregators.
The union members demand that IT cab and government cab services be regulated and that a vigilance commission be assigned to investigate the negligence and tampering within the services.
In the IT sector, drivers lose out a lot of money as a number of mediators and sub-vendors intervene.
“Companies like Wipro and Genpact use cab services through a number of sub-vendors and the driver is left with little amounts after subtraction commission for each vendor. Of a standard Rs 650 for a roundtrip, the driver gets only Rs 450,” said Salauddin.
The workers are currently appealing to the state IT minister KT Rama Rao and IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan to help resolve these issues,” he added.
The Union leader also alleged that the salaries of the government drivers have not been increased since 2017 amidst the rising prices of diesel and petrol.
“The salaries of these drivers have been fixed at Rs 34000 per month, since 2017, although the price of gas has been increased. Furthermore, these salaries have been pending for months as of today,” he added.
The JACs demanded the state to conduct a meeting to address the issues of workers.