Jamshedpur, Aug. 27 : The auto-rickshaw and school pool van operators and private town buses have threatened to go on an indefinite strike against �administration highhandedness�.As mark of protest against the overloading check drive started by traffic police, school van operators in the city have announced indefinite strike.
The police are acting against the van operators after receiving regular complains of city school vans being packed with students�their bags tied on the roof of the vehicles.
Meanwhile, passengers faced inconvenience as majority of the 20,000 auto-rickshaw operators went off road from 9 am to deliberate on strategy to force administration to stop checking drive.
�It is really shocking to see chaos like situation on the roads. I thought of availing auto-ride to my office in Bistupur. However, there was no auto-rickshaw in sight even after waiting for over 15 minutes at Sakchi. Fortunately, I had Ola app installed in my phone and immediately booked a ride to reach my office,� said an executive in a private bank at Bistupur.
Auto-rickshaws operators had decided to stay off the road between 9 am and 12.30 pm today, to attend a meeting called by ShikshitBerojgar Tempo Chalak- SanchalakSangh (an outfit of auto-rickshaw drivers and operators in city) at Aam Bagan ground in Sakchi to chalk out future course of action, if the administration does not stops checking auto-rickshaws documents and penalizing for overloading.
The call had also received support from Shiskhik Berojgar Mini Bus Association (an outfit of private town bus operators) and School Vahan Seva Samity (an outfit of school pool van operators). Though, private town buses and school pool vans plied as usual today.
Ahmed Khan, van operator said, �We are poor lot of people and rely on school children for our daily bread. If police would limit the number of children to be traveled then it would be difficult for us to survive�.
A traffic official said that as per permit they will allow only three students in small auto rickshaws, five in diesel make auto-rickshaws and eight in vans. Overloading invites a minimum fine of Rs 2,000 under the Motor Vehicles Act.
Meanwhile, the van operators are also not happy with the drive launched by the traffic police. Concerned with surprise checks, some van operators have even started carrying few children these days and are asking the parents to drop their children from their own vehicles for the time being.