HYDERABAD: Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Tuesday urged auto-rickshaw drivers’ unions to call off the strike scheduled for December 7 and promised to hold discussions with them on December 6.
The Auto Drivers Unions Joint Action Committee (JAC) had last month called for a statewide strike to remind the government of their pending demands.
After meeting the representatives of several unions — IFTU, BRTU, AITUC and TADS, among others — the minister said he along with MLC M Kondandaram and CPI MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao would work to resolve their issues.
Representatives of the JAC have been alleging that their livelihood has been severely impacted since the implementation of the Mahalakshmi scheme, under which bus rides are free for women.
“The minister has assured us of a discussion. If our demands are met, then we will call off the strike on December 7,” said Sathi Reddy, general secretary of the Telangana Auto-Drivers Samakhya (TADS).
The representatives have been demanding Rs 15,000 reimbursement per annum from the government as compensation for their “losses”, an Auto-Motor Transport Workers Welfare Board, compensation of Rs 10 lakh to families of drivers who die by suicide and a ban on the two-wheelers operated by aggregators like Ola, Uber, Rapido and others.
They also claimed that three-wheelers, registered in other districts, are operating in Hyderabad without permission and also sought implementation of a single-permit policy, a promise by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the run-up to the Assembly elections last year.