AICCTU held a protest march from Parivartan Chowk to the District Collector’s office on 28 December 2018 against drivers of battery-operated rickshaws (e-rickshaws) and eviction of footpath vendors, and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Governor to the City Magistrate. The memorandum states the following demands: end oppression of e-rickshaw drivers, fix their routes and construct stands for them; stop eviction of footpath vendors and ensure them guarantee of employment and security.
The rally which began at Parivartan Chowk culminated in a meeting in front of the Collector’s office. The speakers who addressed the meeting said that the Modi Raj is bent on giving benefits to Walmart and other such MNCs; therefore, it is not only evicting street vendors in order to end all retail trade, but the Yogi government is also oppressing e-rickshaw drivers at the behest of Ola, Uber and other such MNCs so that public transport is destroyed. They said that we need to stand together and fight against this conspiracy. The speakers appealed to the people to make the 2-day workers’ general strike on 8-9 January a resounding success. AICCTU District convener Com. KMS Magan, CPI(ML) District in-charge Com. Ramesh Singh Sengar, e-rickshaw drivers’ united front leaders Virendra Kumar and Nepa Singh Yadav, and construction workers’ union leader Com. Sugreev Saroj warned that if the oppression of e-rickshaw drivers and street vendors is not stopped immediately, this fight will be fought on a much larger scale.
