COMMON people in parts of Mumbai on Monday bore the brunt of alleged hooliganism by some autorickshaw and taxi drivers who protested against the State Government’s Marathi proficiency drive and tried to stop other members of the fraternity from transporting passengers. Some videos circulating on social media showed demonstrations being organised in suburban Kandivali, Malad (West), Santacruz, Dahisar, Andheri and a few other locations. At Laljipada in Kandivali (West), drivers staged a rasta-roko during the rush hour around 9 am. A team of police personnel reached the spot and dispersed the protesters, normalising the situation within some time. A group allegedly stopped other autorickshaw and taxi drivers, including those operating appbased cabs, from ferrying passengers. They allegedly forced some drivers to make passengers deboard vehicles. Some drivers also complained that the protesters tried to damage their vehicles.

 

“Rickshaw drivers are forming groups, forcibly removing passengers from rickshaws! Oshiwara Mega Mall,” Arvind Rao, an X user, wrote on the microblogging site. A leader of an auto-rickshaw and taxi union attributed the protests to panic among some drivers who are unable to speak Marathi and fear losing their livelihoods. He said such drivers tried to stage protests and stopped other drivers from transporting passengers. “Not a single union has given a strike or agitation call,” the leader said, adding that some groups of drivers staged protests at various locations in the western suburbs, where the number of non-Marathi-speaking drivers is significant. The situation normalised in the second half of the day, he said. A senior regional transport official at the Borivali RTO said they learnt that someone had spread misinformation among drivers that they would be fined Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 for not having working knowledge of Marathi. The Maharashtra Transport Department launched a Statewide drive from August 20 to check drivers’ working knowledge of the Marathi language.