HYDERABAD: Telangana Cab Drivers and Owners Association (TCDOA) will go on a hunger strike, from Wednesday. The members have taken the step after not receiving any response from taxi aggregators.
The TCDOA along with other unions announced a 5-day strike against Ola and Uber.
The unions have put forth a set of demands ranging from scrapping the cab sharing system to stopping the cab leasing scheme of the taxi aggregators. The members of TCDOA will hold their hunger strike at Dharna Chowk in Indira Park.
Another union, Telangana Cab Drivers Association (TCDA) formed a Joint Action Committee with four other taxi unions. They too held a dharna on Tuesday at the same location. Both unions claim to represent Ola and Uber drivers and have the same demands, but are not united. The Telangana State Congress Committe has now come forward extending their support to Ola and Uber drivers.
“We approached TCDOA to form Joint Action Committee, but they declined,” said Anjaneyulu Kandukuri, president of TCDA. There are other unions who have joined us but TCDOA is not a part of that group as they are not cooperating with us, he added.
The TCDA members claim that various other unions have come out in support for their cause. “We want to meet the Road Transport Authority (RTA) commissioner to hear our case. We will also be approaching the Chief Minister to help us,” he added.
“People of TSDA attacked our men who were trying to stop drivers from driving for Ola and Uber. These organisations are hands in glove with Uber and are following their orders,” alleges Shiva Vulkundakar, president of TCDOA. Shiva who was suspended from driving from will be spearheading the hunger strike.
“Despite our struggles if the government and the taxi aggregators do not respond to us, we will be left with little choice but to resume service. We will then fight another day,” says Shiva adding that they can’t let families of our drivers go hungry.