The Bhubaneswar Autorickshaw Mahasangha has called a 12-hour strike on Tuesday to protest the diesel price hike and restrictions on the domestic subsidised LPG cylinder. More than 17,000 autorickshaws will stay off road from 6 am to 6 pm in the city.
The strike was called by the Auto Mahasangha after their appeal to the Transport Department for increasing auto fare was not heeded. “In other states there is a technical committee that discusses the fares with the autorickshaw unions when there is a hike in fuel prices, but no such thing happens in our State,” said Bhubaneswar Auto Mahasangha general secretary Padman Kumar Samal. He claimed that every autorickshaw driver is facing a loss of Rs 50 a day after the diesel price hike.