Hyderabad: White-plate vehicles plying in city dent automen’s earnings

Hyderabad: In a strange move, a few auto-rickshaw drivers pasted a poster on the back of their vehicles asking Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to cancel the white number plate vehicles operating as passenger transport vehicles attached to the app-based aggregators.

Drivers say white number plate vehicles are causing a huge dent in the coffers of auto-rickshaw drivers in the city. Around 2 lakh auto drivers are incurring huge losses due to privately-run vehicles – both bike and cars with the app companies which is also cutting down the revenue of the government for evading from commercial vehicle tax.

In a poster, the auto drivers sought the help of the Chief Minister and appealed to Revanth Reddy that over 2 lakh auto drivers in Greater Hyderabad are facing trouble due to these private vehicles running as commercial vehicles and appealed to the CM to cancel the white number plate vehicles running as commercial immediately.

B Ramakrishna, an auto-driver put a poster that read, “Chief Minister, a vehicle must have yellow plate to operate as a cab or they would be penalised by the RTA, and these vehicles now operating as passenger transport must be cancelled at the earliest.” “However, several white number plated bikes and cars are operating as passenger transport vehicles with app-based aggregators like Ola, Uber, and Rapido. And we poor auto drivers are severely affected and are only trying to earn a living in the absence of any other gainful employment,” said Ramakrishna.

On several occasions, the Telangana State Taxi Drivers' Joint Action Committee has drawn the attention of the officials to the modus operandi of the non-transport vehicles with white number plates using them for passenger transport. According to them, the local auto rickshaws as well as cab drivers bear heavy losses. The JAC claimed that the privately owned bike and also cars are freed from paying road permits, taxes and licence fee, which is mandatory for operating a commercial vehicle.

S Dayanand, an auto union leader said the auto-rickshaw drivers are bearing heavy losses with the private number plate vehicles operating as passenger transport. “The app aggregators must also make sure that private vehicles are not attached with the app which is operating as commercial. Moreover, they are also attaching the other district autos in Greater Hyderabad, which is also causing a huge dent in the coffers of city auto drivers,” added Dayanand. For such vehicles the RTA must take action against them, he said.

The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) State president Shaik Salauddin said the union gave a representation to the Chief Minister, Transport Minister and Chief Secretary and stressed that the increasing business of private vehicles severely impacts commercial drivers.

Salauddin said that the companies like Rapido, Ola and Uber are running ride hailing services on private vehicles to transport passengers. “This is an illegal business practice by these companies. Also, the state government is being robbed of various fees and taxes which are earned from commercially registered vehicles,” he added.