Cab strike continues, commuters' woes mount

With the protests by Ola and Uber entering its seventh day, trouble seems to be mounting across Delhi-NCR. Commuters, especially office-goers, on various roads have reported tremendous hardships throughout the day as they complain of lesser public transport facilities.

Talks between the Delhi government and striking drivers of Ola and Uber failed to break the deadlock even as the city administration warned of strict action against any violence. The Transport minister has warned of strict action against those drivers indulging in violence, a day after striking drivers torched a taxi in Indirapuram.

The worst hit are working women who prefer to choose taxi services instead of public transport citing safety reasons. Their (commuters) misery may mount manifold as both the cab aggregators and the drivers' associations are yet to find a solution to the logjam. Amid confrontation, the irked associations have threatened to intensify their ongoing strike while the cab provider agencies have claimed to resume services partially.

On Thursday, the seventh consecutive day, city roads witnessed lesser number of Ola and Uber vehicles with the maximum "waiting period". The commuters, in search of vehicles, were seen wandering in every nook and corner of the city but without any respite.

"While looking for a cab through the mobile app, I have been forced to wait for very long. Despite the response, the cab aggregator provided no service for almost 30 minutes," said Rakesh Saxena, a commuter waiting for cab at Pragati Maidan on Thursday morning. The office-goers claimed that owing to the ongoing protests, they have been left worst affected with no cabs in their vicinity.

"As we have to reach offices on time, we are facing difficulties in managing our schedule. We cannot depend on other means of public services as they are not available in peak hours. It's shocking that on Ola's app, there were no cabs available at times during the peak evening hours while Uber's app showed taxis with inflated fares on a few routes," said Dipti Manchanda, an office-goer.

Refusing to withdraw their strike, the agitating drivers said they are unable to meet all their family expenses and they have no money to repay loans and owing to bouncing cheques, the situation has worsened with the financiers even confiscating cars. "We were better off before becoming Ola, Uber drivers. We had some arrangements even then. We were surviving and meeting our daily needs.

Now, we are left with nothing. Where should we go? We will continue the strike till our demands are met," said Shafakat Alam, a member of the taxi drivers' association.

The aggregators, however, said: "We are seeing more and more drivers getting back to work on the platform over the last 48 hours."