Auto drivers' strike termed 'partial'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JULY 2. Even as the Karnataka State Auto Drivers' Welfare Joint Action Committee, representing four autorickshaw drivers' associations, clarified that it did not support any strike by the drivers, there was a noticeable drop in the number of three-wheelers on the City roads on Monday.

The strike, dubbed ``partial'' by police and the public, was, however, reason enough for several taxi-drivers and autorickshaw drivers on the road to increase the fares. People in busy commercial and business areas faced difficulty in reaching their destinations. The situation was no different at the railway stations and bus stands in the City.

At a hurriedly convened press conference, the Karnataka State Auto Drivers' Welfare Joint Action Committee maintained that it had no information about any organisation calling for a strike. Some of the 66,000 autorickshaw drivers in the City might had refused to ply their vehicles fearing attacks by miscreants, an office-bearer of the committee said.

The committee Chairman, Mr. Mohammad Abbas, said a notice of the bandh had been pasted on autorickshaws by ``unidentified persons''. He demanded that police conduct a search for them and initiate action against them.

Refuting reports of death of an autorickshaw driver in a lathicharge near the railway station, Mr. Abbas said one of the two injured persons was present at the press conference.

In the wake of the recent ``encounters'' between autorickshaw drivers and police, the committee had called for an end to police ``harassment''. Autorickshaw drivers, according to a recent statement from the committee, were being ``targeted'' and checked for violation of rules. No action was taken against drivers of BMTC buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles, it claimed.

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Section  : Southern States
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