Ola, Uber strike: Mumbai Police arrests MNS transport wing chief, 11 others

On the second day of the Ola, Uber indefinite strike, the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested 12 people, including Sanjay Naik, the president of the transport wing of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), besides some drivers of either Ola or Uber, an executive of a ride-hailing company told Business Standard. The arrests were made after the filing of a first information report (FIR) against the MNS workers for organising the nationwide strike.

The indefinite strike of drivers of cab aggregators Ola and Uber continued for a second day on Tuesday causing a lot of difficulties for scores of office-goers and other commuters in the metros.

There are around 1.5 million Ula and Ola cabs in the country, and many of them refused to operate, crippling traffic and causing inconvenience to travellers. "Drivers are in huge debt," said Sanjay Naik, president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena, the transport wing of the MNS, adding that they were not making enough money to survive or service their car loans payments. While all of Uber’s cars are owned by the company, Ola allows its drivers to own some of its cabs as well as runs its own cabs across the country.