6-seater rickshawmen launch 'civil disobedience' stir

PUNE: Six-seater rickshawmen will launch a "civil disobedience movement" on March 14 to press for lifting the ban on six-seaters, Nitin Jagtap, corporator and president, Nationalist Congress Party Six-Seater Rickshaw Sanghatana (NCPSRS), announced on Thursday.
"From Friday, six-seater drivers will ply on all city roads, including those where they been banned.We are ready to face the consequences of violating the ban. If the police or transport authorities demand a fine, we will in turn demand the price of a six-seater (Rs 1.50 lakh) from them. Or else, we will just throw the rickshaws into the river," Jagtap said at a press conference.
It may be recalled that on January 10 the regional transport authority announced the ban on six seaters within the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal limits (pre-1997). In the first phase, the rickshaws were banned on the Pune-Solapur and Pune-Mumbai roads.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had already banned six seaters on Sinhagad road and Satara road about a year ago.
Since January 10, the NCPSRS has conducted a series of protests, including a dharna on the Vetal hill and the dumping of rickshaws into the Mula river.
"For the last two months, six-seater owners have not been able to pay loan instalments. The bankers and private money lenders have been threatening to confiscate the vehicles. The rickshawmen are left with no option but to launch a civil disobedience movement," Jagtap said.
The union leader further claimed, "In the initial stages of the agitation, NCPSRS interviewed thousands of citizens, nearly 99 per cent of whom said the ban on six-seaters was unjust and six-seaters are the cheapest and the most convenient mode of transport.
"All political parties, except the Congress, are ready to re-consider the ban on six-seaters. A motion to reconsider the ban, moved by the BJP-Sena in the PMC, has been blocked by the Congress. They are simply not allowing a discussion to take place in the general body of the PMC."