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.

Ola, Uber indefinite strike begins, commuters set for bumpy ride: 10 points

Do you use Ola and Uber for your daily commute? If yes, you may want to find other modes of transport as drivers for app-based cab aggregators Uber and Ola on Monday started an indefinite strike across India. The strike, which began at midnight on Sunday, centred on Mumbai and was called by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's transport union.

The strike, which will be observed in key cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, aims to voice the drivers’ woes of not being able to cover rising costs due to falling business. They are currently being paid Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per month, according to media reports.

"Ola and Uber had given big assurances to the drivers, but today they are unable to cover their costs. They have invested Rs 500,000 to Rs 700,000 and were expecting to make Rs 150,000 a month. But drivers are unable to make even half of this because of the mismanagement by these companies," said Sanjay Naik, President of Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena, reported news agency PTI.