Bengaluru auto strike: Despite strike by city unions, auto rickshaws ply during rush hours

“This is a major inconvenience for auto rickshaw drivers too….Our income is not so big.. we cannot just stay off work for a full day without pay,” Rudramurthy TM, general secretary of Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU), told ET.

Auto drivers had earlier decided to go on a strike for Monday and Tuesday to protest against bike taxis, which are operated by ride-hailing apps like Uber and Swiggy-backed Rapido.

Almost all the unions across the city were participating in an attempt to get the state government’s attention ahead of the elections here.

Bike taxis are only allowed to operate in the city as long as they are electric vehicles. But auto drivers allege that regular petrol bikes are being used to ferry passengers, which is illegal.

“Bike taxis are extremely unsafe. Maharashtra and Delhi have already banned them,” said Rudramurthy. “We have obtained a stay against them in the Karnataka High Court, so now they’re operating illegally. We have been raising this issue since 2017. This has been a long fight.”

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L Hemanth Kumar, additional commissioner, transport department, told ET that Rapido is operating white-board two-wheelers as bike taxis, which is a violation of the regulations. But there was a stay from the High Court and the transport department was also pursuing the case to get the stay vacated. The case will be coming up before the court on March 29, he said.

Recently, multiple states have banned bike taxis in their cities, the Delhi government even put out a public notice in February directing all tech companies like Uber and Rapido to stop its operations.

Rapido and the Maharashtra government are fighting it out in court regarding the legitimacy of the service.

On Sunday, the Bike Taxi Rider’s Association of Karnataka held a protest at the Freedom Park in Bengaluru urging state government, policy and administrative support to bike taxi riders.

“Unfortunately, due to lack of appropriate policy framework for regulating and operating bike taxis in the State of Karnataka has led to several challenges for bike taxi riders and passengers, including regular physical abuse and heckling by members of the Auto Union and regular challans of bike taxi riders and enforcement by the Department of Transport, Government of Karnataka,” it said in a statement.

Uber and Rapido declined to comment on the development.