The tussle between the Federation of the Karnataka State Private Transport Association and the State government hasn’t been resolved.
The federation has announced a “Bengaluru Bandh” where all private fare transport will go off the road on September 11. This comes even as the federation claimed that the Transport Department failed to meet their 28 demands by August 31, the deadline they had set.
A total of 32 transport unions, organised under a single federation in Bengaluru, including autorickshaws, buses, taxis, cabs, have issued a strike call.
However, this is not the first such strike call issued. They issued a similar call this July, opposing the Shakti scheme, which offers free rides for women in non-premium bus services of the road transport corporations (RTCs).
However, they withdrew the strike call after meeting Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy. The Minister in the meeting had promised the unions that he will arrange a meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to address their demands on road tax and impact of the Shakti scheme.
While autorickshaws and taxi drivers have demanded compensation, private bus owners have demanded that the government implement the Shakti scheme even in private buses and reimburse them for tickets issued to women.
Auto drivers and owners’ unions are demanding a ban on illegal bike taxis across the city. They also want to ban aggregators who charge more than 5% commission of the total fare.
“We had presented a list of 30 demands to the Transport Minister, with assurances that 28 of them would be met by August 31. However, the government has once more overlooked our needs. Despite engaging in numerous discussions with the government, nothing has been resolved. To address our issues without causing public inconvenience, the government should arrange a public meeting before September 11. Our decision on proceeding with the strike will be based on the outcome of this meeting,” Natraj Sharma, president of the Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Reddy said that he had scheduled the meeting with the Chief Minister, but the federation failed to come and the other transport organisations had attended the meeting.
