App-cab strike: Drivers resort to hooliganism after meeting delayed

Kolkata: A section of app-cab owners' association and drivers resorted to hooliganism in parts of the city after a meeting scheduled to be held at Kasba Paribahan Bhavan on Thursday morning

was postponed.

As many as 14 people were arrested from Kasba and Lake Town for trying to stop app-cabs from plying on the road, causing harassment to passengers, most of whom were office-bound.

The meeting that was scheduled at Kasba was called off with no representative from one of the two aggregators turning up at the venue.

It was agreed that the next meeting will be held on January 10 to discuss the demands of the aggregator, which has resulted in lesser number of vehicles hitting the roads for the last few days.

Soon, after the meeting, a number of app-cab drivers took to the road infront of Paribahan Bhavan and tried to disrupt the on-duty cabs by forcing passengers out of the vehicle.

They even smashed the windows of the vehicles and a number of passengers were compelled to get off in fear. There were also allegations of people pelting stones at the cabs plying on road. Officer-in-Charge of Kasba police station Debasish Dutta, along with his team, rushed to the spot and soon brought the situation under control. Six persons were arrested by police from the spot for resorting to hooliganism and causing harassment to commuters.

The same incident took place at Golaghata crossing in the airport flank on VIP Road when a number of drivers tried to obstruct Uber cabs and restrain passengers on the vehicles, leaving the GPS devices in the vehicles damaged. Police arrested as many as eight persons from the spot to bring the situation

under control.

It may be mentioned that app-cab aggregators under the West Bengal Online Cab Operators Guild (WBOCOG) has been demanding intervention of the government for quite sometime after some aggregators had suspended a number of drivers.

The app-cab union had called a strike of 72 hours on December 24 but after the intervention of Madan Mitra, president of WBOCOG, they withdrew their strike. Mitra had urged them not to disrupt services with the Christmas and New Year's celebrations on in the city. A number of app-cab drivers, however, have been staying off road resulting in lesser number of such cabs in the city.