Amid festive rush, Kolkatans face harrowing time as cab crisis cripples city

Kolkata: Several passengers and daily commuters in the city faced immense trouble while reaching their destinations on Tuesday, as some errant cab drivers forced them to get off and snatched the keys from the drivers to force them to go for strike.

According to the accused drivers,

they are protesting against the Ola and Uber authorities regarding several

issues. Later, the West Bengal Online Cab Operators Guild (WBOCOG) intervened and service normalised from the afternoon.

WBOCOG president Madan Mitra on Tuesday warned the drivers not to go for any strike. He also stated that the Ola and Uber authorities are doing injustice to the drivers and cab operators. On December 27, the guild authorities led by Mitra will meet Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari regarding the problem.

It was on Monday when some online cab drivers went to Uber's office in Salt Lake, where they were heckled. Later, the angry drivers decided to go for a strike till Wednesday. However, the guild requested the drivers not to go on strike. Mitra also got in touch with them and asked for the same.

According guild leaders, when the news of forceful strike reached them on Tuesday morning, they intervened and warned the strike supporters to restrain themselves, adding that strict action would be taken otherwise. Due to the issue, cabs at the Kolkata Airport were very low in number.

General Secretary of the guild Indranil Banerjee stated that the situation has now been normalised. No effect of the strike will be there from Wednesday. On Tuesday Mitra said: "No strike of Ola and Uber will be tolerated. By taking the guild's and my name, some miscreants tried to go for a strike forcibly by dragging out passengers from cabs and snatching the keys from the drivers. We are trying to locate them. We are going to sit with Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari regarding the problem on December 27. The Ola and Uber authorities are behaving like fascists."