Taxi passengers in the city have lost another battle. Due to the pressure tactics from the trade union run by state minister Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh Rane, the Meru Cab management on Saturday took back all the 21 drivers who had misbehaved with commuters, driven passengers out from cabs and damaged taxis.
AK Tiwari of the taxi union run by Nitesh Rane said the management had bowed down to their demands. “A few demands are pending as the company directors will take a call after Diwali,” he said.
Rajesh Puri, CEO of Meru Cabs, refused to comment, but issued a press note stating, “Meru subscribers will now be able to get back to business, servicing the city of Mumbai. By tomorrow, the entire fleet of 2000 cabs will be back on roads.”
Sources said in the first week of October, when a fight between two drivers over parking at the airport got ugly, Rane’s NGO allegedly took advantage of the fight and made it into a migrant issue and eventually began to be actively involved in the issues of Meru’s taxi drivers.
According to Meru, during earlier protests, at least four taxis were damaged which has forced hundreds of taxi drivers working with Meru to go off roads Instances of commuters being forced to get off their taxis were also reported. Violence was reported in Thane, Powai, Kandivli and Dahisar.
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