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Autorickshawas, taxis go on strike in Indian capital

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Commuters in India's capital city of New Delhi faced hardships due to an indefinite strike of autorickshawas and taxis that began Tuesday, officials said.

The strike was called by a conglomerate of about 20 unions of autorickshawas and taxis against app-based taxi services operating in the capital city.

"From today we have started an indefinite strike against the operations of Uber and Ola (app-based taxi services) which don't have permit to run their taxis in Delhi," Rajendra Soni, general secretary of Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh and Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union said. " With no permission to run the services, the government is allowing them to take away our livelihoods."

According to Soni, the New Delhi government has failed to fulfil its commitment so far, despite its assurances to them on several occasions.

The conglomerate claims about 85,000 autorickshawas and 15,000 yellow-black taxis have gone off the roads in capital city.

Reports said unions which are affiliated to major political parties including rightwing Bhartiya Janta Party and Congress, in Delhi have come together and given a call for a strike.

The Delhi government has described the strike "politically motivated" and said banning the app-based taxi services falls under the ambit of federal government and not with them.

"The operations of Ola and Uber are illegal in Delhi as they don't have permit from the Delhi transport department to ply their taxis," a Delhi government spokesperson said. "We have already written to the Centre to block server of Uber, but the Union government said it cannot do so as its main server is in US." Endit