To keep up protest, Uber, Ola drivers stage rail roko

A fringe group of Ola, Uber drivers staged a rail roko at Dadar railway station on Tuesday morning, affecting train movement for eight minutes during rush hour, to protest their strike being called off on Monday.

Around 20-25 drivers stood on the Churchgate-bound slow track and stopped trains at 10.30 am and were cleared from tracks by 10.38 am. A case was registered against eight people under Sections 145 (B), 147 and 174 (A) of the Railway Act.

According to sources, a group of 20-25 men got on the tracks of platform No 2 of Dadar railway station at 10.30 am and stopped the Churchgate-bound train for about eight minutes before they were escorted away by cops. During the rail roko, protesters were raising slogans against the cab aggregator companies.

The drivers of cab aggregators Ola and Uber had gone on a 12-day strike last month, to protest lower earnings due to the fuel price hike. The strike was called off on November 3, following assurances from the aggregators to provide a new fare chart on a price-per-kilometre basis by mid-November. However, the strike was resumed on November 17, with drivers alleging the cab aggregators had failed to communicate with their superiors on the demands.

The Maharashtra Rajya Rashtriya Kamgar Sangh (MRRKS), which is the parent organisation behind the Ola and Uber strike, had called a strike on Monday. The strike call was withdrawn after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis promised to take up their pending demands, bringing relief to thousands of commuters.

Nitin David, a Western Railway Public Relations Officer (PRO), said, "Since the Railway Police Force (RPF) personnel intervened at the right time, there was no untoward incident reported. Although services were affected for a few minutes during the protest, they returned to normalcy soon after."

The RPF police apprehended eight men and booked them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Railway Act, after which they were released on bail.

Since it was peak hours on Tuesday morning, many commuters were late to work and college. A physiotherapist, Karruna Jain, who commutes daily from Mahim to Mumbai Central, was on the train which was stopped by the protesters. Jain said, "The train was stopped for ten minutes at Dadar railway station, and it was chaos, with people trying to climb into the train."

Commenting on the rail roko staged by a fringe group of Ola and Uber drivers, Sachin Ahir, president of the MRRKS and senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said, "We had nothing to do with the Western Railway agitation on tracks. There was no point in protesting a day after the CM assured a comprehensive meeting between the stakeholders after the winter session."