With the civic body introducing more services, commuters will not be affected by the 12-hour stir called by auto drivers
With the civic body introducing more services, commuters will not be affected by the 12-hour stir called by auto drivers
With the BMTC wooing the aam janta with 300 extra buses and regular auto commuters ready to use the service, the 12-hour auto strike today does not seem to be on its way to success.
"The strike will not be successful as there are buses to take us wherever we want.
The auto fare has just been hiked so what are they complaining about now?" said 29-year-old Vikram Kumar, a software professional and a regular commuter.
The city traffic police feels that the strike is unnecessary and will lead to nothing but less traffic on the road.
There are others, who agree with him. "This is one excuse to harass people. The strike will hardly affect us. We can always avail car pool or our good old BMTC buses," said Arpita Hikodi, HR professional.
The BMTC also seems to be ready to combat the strike.
"We have extended the time for buses that ply until 7.30 to 10 pm, other than the extra buses. So we don't expect the public to expect any inconvenience," said KS Vishwanath, Chief Traffic Manager Operation, BMTC.
Even the city traffic police feels that the strike is unnecessary and will lead to nothing but less traffic on the road.
"Traffic congestion will be lesser if the autos are on strike. We appeal to people to use buses. The strike is just another way for the auto drivers to harass commuters," said Addl CP Praveen Sood.
However, according to the city auto unions, the strike will be held from 6 am to 6 pm to protest against the government's delay in granting their various demands like increase in the accident relief fund for auto drivers, a subsidy of Rs 2,000 for the new electronic meter installation and so on.
According to Manjunath, president, Adarsh Autorickshaw Drivers Union, around 75,000 of 80,000 autos in the city will be on strike. "The strike is not against the commuters.
This is the only way to tell the government. Buses will be more frequent, we appeal to the public to make use of them until such time."
Even the corporate offices are all geared to make sure that the strike does not affect their employees.
"Though we have not increased the number of buses we have circulated a mail urging employees to come by company buses before 9 am tomorrow," said Syed Zabi, an official at the transport desk, Tata Consultancy Services.
Similar strikes
July 19: Protest against the directive of replacing three pane windows with a single pane
August 12: Meter Jam campaign where citizens decided to boycott auto rickshaws to oppose unreasonable demands being made by auto drivers
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October 12, 2009: Against the Government's decision to change the colour from yellow and black to black and green
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