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Burdened by no Covid relief fund, bike taxis, auto drivers protest in Pune
PUNE Auto-rickshaw drivers in various parts of Maharashtra held protests on Monday to put forth their various demands
PUNE Auto-rickshaw drivers in various parts of Maharashtra held protests on Monday to put forth their various demands. In Pune, the protests were held at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar statue near the Pune district collector office.
The drivers demanded the authorities to give them their pending dues of Covid relief fund, which was declared by the state government. Apart from that, open auto permits allocation, huge EMI of insurance, illegal bike taxis were the few other problems due to which the protests took place.
“After the Covid pandemic started all the autos stopped running and on finance companies were harassing auto drivers to pay the EMIs. Similarly, as a relief to the auto drivers, funds were been given by the state government and still we have not yet received it. Due to the illegal running of bike taxis,our business has gone down and auto drivers are suffering financially,” said Nitin Pawar ,rickshaw panchayat auto union convenor.
The auto drivers gathered outside the Pune district collector office at around 3 pm.
“From the past two years, there has been barely any income. I had to borrow ₹1 lakh during the pandemic to pay EMIs and support my family,” said Kishore Mhatre an auto driver.
“Today (Monday), we submitted our demand letter to Pune district collector. If our demands are not met, we will go on indefinite strike. Also, the open allocation of auto permits need to shut, as it is impacting on the financial income of the auto drivers.” added Pawar.
Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh said, “Today, we had an interaction with the auto-rickshaw union leaders and understood their issues. They have submitted their demand letter, accordingly, we will submit it to the state government . Apart from that, we will work on the issues which are related to district administration.”
