Autorickshaw union threaten to strike

Autorickshaw owners and drivers attached to Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today threatened to go on a strike, protesting against the police action of imposing heavy fine and damaging property for not obeying with metered fare.
"The police is confiscating autorickshaws for not complying with metered fare. Even before the government announced the fare of Rs 30 for two km, we had suggested Rs 25 for 1.8 km. It is affecting our livelihood. We are being forced to go on a strike" CITU state leader, Chandran told reporters here.
Contending that the police confiscated their autorickshaws for months together for not complying with metered fare, he alleged, "Even when the vehicles are returned, engines and tyres are missing."

Referring to state government's announcement of installing GPS in all autorickshaws, he said no such thing has happened so far.
He also wanted a tripartite committee to be set up and be called for meeting every three months to determine the auto fares in line with the rate of petrol.
"We are holding talks with other associations. We have over 18,000 autorickshaws attached to us. We will announce our decision tomorrow," he added.
Even as the state government revived the metered fare for passengers using autorickshaws, most of them were not complying with the guidelines and were being confiscated by the police.