HYDERABAD: The cab drivers who were slowly recuperating from the effect of the first lockdown feel they cannot endure another. Most of them are currently engaged in transporting. not only regular clients, but also Covid-19 patients, with or without their knowledge.
A woman cab driver D Laxmi, a resident of Neredmet. who lost her husband in December, recalled the experience of the lockdown. “My husband, who faced the first lockdown, struggled to support the family and lost his life to Covid-19. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao might have taken a decision in view of the pandemic, but reducing the non-curfew hours to four isn’t going to allow anyone to sustain,” she said.
Failing to earn her livelihood by driving, she has been using her vehicle to sell vegetables and spices for a month now. There were around 1.25 lakh cabs which were operating within the city before the nationwide lockdown was announced in March 2020. It impacted 33,000 vehicles operating for IT companies and some 28,000 vehicles employed by tourist and travel agencies.
Shaik Salauddin, founder and State president, Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, said, “For the survival of cabbies, we demand a provision of `1,175 per day during the lockdown period and a three-month tax waiver,” he mentioned.
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