Amidst the rising CNG price in Delhi, the auto and taxi drivers have demanded the state government to provide subsidy on CNG. They have announced to go on strike from April 18 to press for their demand of subsidy on gas prices, protesting against the frequent hike in CNG prices. With the fifth increase in CNG prices on Thursday, the fuel price has risen by almost ₹15 this month.
Recently on April 11, hundreds of auto, taxi and cab drivers under the aegis of the Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh, staged a protest at the Delhi secretariat to demand a subsidy on CNG prices.
“We are protesting against the policies of the Centre and Delhi government. Our protest will continue and we will go on strike from April 18. The price of CNG is soaring every single day and we are demanding the government to provide us a subsidy of Rs 35 per kg”, said Mr. Rajendra Soni, General Secretary of Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh.
“In the last seven years, the Delhi government never called even a single meeting of Auto-Rickshaw association members. We’ve written to CM Arvind Kejriwal but received no response from his office. Who else are we supposed to reach out to with these problems? Neither the CM, nor any other leader from the government is ready to speak to us. If our protests escalate, the governments will start playing blame game amongst each other.”, he further added.
While Mr. Ravi Rathore, the President of the Sarvodaya Drivers’ welfare association, said:
“Constant price hike in CNG is burning holes in our pockets. We staged protests on April 8 and April 11, yet the government is mum and hasn’t called us for talks yet. We will definitely do ‘Chakka Jam’ on April 18. Even the common man will hit the streets if the government’s approach towards this issue remains the same.”
Recently, during the strike by Ola-Uber drivers in Chandigarh on Tuesday, the people looking for taxis were troubled. While many local cab drivers went on strike on the call of the Cab Auto Sanyukt Morcha, to push the administration to enforce the recently notified hiked fares, several drivers aligned with cab aggregators like Ola and Uber also joined the strike for their demands. This strike had troubled the people. Not just the traffic jam but the people were also cluttered due to the non-availability of taxis.
