Rickshaw drivers have rejected the City District Government Multan's (CDGM) decision to ban two-stroke rickshaws and rendering more than 2000 people jobless in Multan city in a bid to introduce four stroke /CNG rickshaws.
All Punjab Rickshaw Taxi Unions Federation Punjab Chairman Rizwan Sabir on Thursday told newsmen that they have decided to observe protest throughout province because this policy would be implemented in Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Jhang etc and the decision was unfair and it would increase the number of jobless youths in the province.
He said that there were almost 600,000 people attached to this business. He said that rickshaw drivers and their families would badly suffer if City or town or district governments did not change its attitude towards 150,000 rickshaw drivers. He said two-stroke rickshaw was not the only source of pollution. Rizwan said that rickshaw drivers presented many proposals to settle the issue, but government never responded positively.
He said that representatives of rickshaw drivers' association's held meetings with the district co-ordination officers (DCO) in Lahore and other big stations to resolve the issue regarding funding for the conversion of their two-stroke auto-rickshaws into 4-stroke CNG rickshaws and the DCOs had agreed in principle that soft loans would be given to rickshaw drivers.
Rizwan said it had been decided at a meeting with the Punjab chief minister a week ago that the government would look into rickshaw drivers' demands. He said it was also decided that no new road would be included in the 'no entry zone for rickshaws' until alternative arrangements were made for two-stroke rickshaw owners. He said the rickshaw drivers had demanded that if the government wanted to abolish two-stroke rickshaws, it would provide rickshaw owners with CNG engines on easy instalments.
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