Bengaluru: Private transport operators on Monday hit the streets of Bengaluru to protest the Siddarmaiah-led Congress government’s decision to give free public bus rides to women under one of its five poll guarantees in Karnataka.
Bengaluru turned into a fortress as police personnel were stationed across the city to avoid any untoward incident. The transport department deployed additional buses to ply in the city and at the airport. There were reports of protesters accosting and even assaulting auto drivers who defied the bandh and ferried passengers. At least four such cases are being probed by the police.
Drivers of auto rickshaws, private buses, cabs among others are claiming financial losses due to the Shakti scheme implemented by the Siddaramaiah government soon after it came to power on 10 May.
The Shakti scheme was the first of the five guarantees implemented on 11 June, giving hundreds of thousands free public bus rides since then.
At least three dozen major unions of auto rickshaws, cabs and private buses, among other organisations have made about 30 demands to the government and have threatened to hit the streets ever since the new government announced its free bus ride scheme.
“All our demands should be met instantly. If not, then our struggle will intensify. Until we get a written assurance, our protest will continue,” Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association president Nataraj Sharma told reporters.
The major demands include not allowing bike-taxis like Rapido to operate in Bengaluru, scrap the proposal to impose a life-time tax on commercial vehicles, setting up of a development corporation for the fraternity and a single rate/tariff applicable for aggregators. Private drivers are also demanding that ‘one-city-one-rate’ be implemented in Bengaluru where prices cannot vary if catering within the city or to the airport.
Auto rickshaw drivers are demanding Rs 10,000 per month as compensation for loss of business, while private bus service providers have also sought their financial setback be accounted for by the new government.
“There are 3.6 lakh auto drivers in the state, and this (their demand) will cost the state Rs 4,400 crore. Private buses have asked for Rs 1,000 crore. In total, we will require Rs 5,500 crore,” transport minister Ramalinga Reddy told reporters.
He, however, remained non-committal on whether the government will fulfil these demands.
On the other hand, Siddaramaiah refused to entertain the demands which he called “impossible”.
“We cannot do anything if they put forth impossible demands. We have implemented the Shakthi scheme, free travel to women…they (private transport providers) have said that it has caused them problems and no women are using their services. Can we give them money? Private buses are demanding that we compensate for the losses because women are not using their vehicles! That is not practically not possible,” he told reporters in Mysuru.
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‘Traditional versus disruptive’
One of the biggest demands is bike taxis and app-based luggage ferrying and pickup vehicles not be given permits to operate in Bengaluru, highlighting the friction between traditional service providers and technology-enabled companies in India’s startup hub.
In October last year, the Karnataka government declared auto services offered by app-based aggregators such as Ola, Uber and Rapido “illegal” after the transport department acted on complaints of minimum fare violations. The auto services have since resumed with various caps on tariffs and commission.
Bike taxis are technically not legal in Bengaluru, as several proposals are pending before the government for the formulation of guidelines on two-wheeler services. But in the absence of clear rules, some tech companies have started offering bike taxi services to customers.
“Our policies are still playing catch-up to technology. There is a ban on bike taxis. There is no concept of car-sharing or car-pooling in the Motor Vehicles Act, and if you go by the Indian Telegraph Act, you’re not even allowed to lay an optical-fibre cable,” Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge had told ThePrint in July.
Auto drivers with the support of a Bengaluru-based company and support from the Nandan Nilekani-led non-profit Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy created ‘Namma Yatri’, an app-based service launched last year to beat “high commission charges” of companies like Uber and Ola. They are much in demand now.
Giving into driver’s demands that the government should create its own app for autos, taxis and goods vehicles, Reddy told protesters that the administration is already working towards this end. “By making this app, we will do as aggregators are fleecing you of half your earnings,” he told to a rapturous applause.
The minister also said that the government will deny permission to any company who wants to start bulk operations of e-auto rickshaws and only individual permits will be given.
In the evening, the protesters called off their strike after Reddy assured them that the government would cede to almost all of the drivers’ demands, including setting up of a board, legal help to keep bike-taxis out of the road, developing an aggregator app and providing low interest loans among others.
(Edited by Tony Rai)