Auto drivers block roads, commuters a harried lot

Tribune News Service

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, September 6

On the call of various unions of auto rickshaw operators, auto drivers and their supporters blocked roads at Bhandari Bridge, the bus stand and the railway station here on Wednesday. The demonstration started in the morning and continued till late evening. They parked their auto rickshaws on roads and blocked vehicular traffic. They were demanding the release of their impounded autos and stopping of the drive against diesel autos.

The protests by the auto rickshaw drivers threw life out of gear. The roads leading to Bhandari Bridge, the bus stand, the GT Road, Valha, Verka and Daburji witnessed long traffic jams. Thousands of commuters, travelling on city roads, got stuck in long traffic jams for hours. The auto rickshaw drivers also blocked the Golden Gate road, the main entrance to the city from the Jalandhar side.

The vehicular traffic coming from the Jalandhar side was diverted towards Bypass Road, where construction work is going on near Vallah Chowk. Commuters heading to Sri Guru Ramdass Jee International Airport to get a flight were worst sufferers. Ironically, administration and traffic police personnel were missing from the bypass road where commuters were standing in long queues. With the help of Google maps, commuters took the route towards Kahnkot village, but got stuck in narrow village streets, which were dug for laying sewer lines.

A number of social and religious organisations supported the demand of auto rickshaw unions and held a large gathering at Bhandari Bridge. The protesters raised slogans against the state government and the Aam Aadmi Party asking them to let them earn their livelihood. Senior police officials tried to pacify the protesters and offered to have negotiation with officials concerned, but they kept demanding the release of their impounded autos. The auto rickshaw operators’ union is also planning to sit on an indefinite protest against the government till their demands were met.

Earlier, the office-bearers of auto rickshaw union met the MC Commissioner on Friday, but didn’t get a favourable response. MC officials are trying to convince the drivers to replace the diesel and petrol auto rickshaws with e-autos.

Gurdeep Singh, a leader of Diesel Auto Rickshaw Union, said, “The government is discriminating against poor

drivers. A 15-year-old car or truck of the MC can run on the city roads, but auto rickshaws are banned. First, the government should stop the movement of diesel vehicles being operated by government departments then they should ban our auto rickshaw.”

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