Commuters rue as autos begin to ‘rule’

People almost missed their flights, New Year revelers were robbed of their enthusiasm and auto rickshaw drivers had a field day fleecing commuters as two major cab services, Ola and Uber continued with their strike on day two.

Ameerpet resident, Vijaya and her two children, who were to catch an early morning flight to Mumbai, had a harrowing experience as cabs were not available.

A journey to the airport that normally cost her Rs 500 now cost her Rs 750 after she had to take the airport liner bus service, no thanks to the auto driver who demanded Rs 600 from her in addition to being clear about his intentions to drop her a few kilometers short of the airport.

Kalavathi, who had to attend a function in her relatives, could not get an auto from Dilsukhnagar to Lower Tank Bund. No one was willing to go to that area and one or two auto drivers demanded Rs 700.

Many people had to cancel their New Year’s plans because they had no means of transport. “The drivers may have switched off their GPS and hence their cabs could not be traced.

I had no other option but to cancel my plans and watch a movie at home,” Prabhakar a private employee told The Hans India.

Meanwhile, Telangana State Cab Driver’s Association (TSCDA) president V Shiva said that their strike was successful.

“The managements offered to pay higher returns to drivers but, asked them to work in shifts,” he informed.

However, there appears to be no respite to problems of the cab driver even on Monday. Telangana State Cabs Association (TSCA) president K Anjaneyulu informed that none of the regular drivers attended their calls.

He said that the strike would continue till January 4 and future course of action would be decided after a meeting of the association members on January 5.

Anjaneyulu alleged that at some places managements tried to run cabs with the help of some drivers who had linked their vehicles with the company in the past. But, the experiment failed.

He said that they were forced to resort to strike as the company has changed terms and conditions and they were made to wait at the airport for over 10 hours without business.

“When we went to the office to tell them about our grievances, they attacked us with bouncers,” said Anjaneyulu.

The association members demanded their managements to stop ‘share booking’, remove peak hours (6am to 6pm) system and provide security to on-duty drivers.