Today in Bangalore, the auto rickshaw strike ended after calling for a strike for 24-hours against the rise in the fuel prices. The price rise nullified the effect of the rise on the minimum charge that they would charge for the commuters. Agreed. It made no difference to their take home income for the day. But, who is to blame – really?
With traffic bursting at it seams, the rush hour times virtually turning the streets into a parking lot, a commute of just a couple of kilometers would guzzle up enough fuel that would have otherwise taken the passengers to a distance ten times that. Do your math. Is it not then advisable to ease the traffic congestion so as to help these public service providers to reduce their fuel consumption and therefore make more take home income? More passengers travelling, more distances with less fuel consumed would make a lot of sense not only to these pubic service providers, but also to commuters.
So why not strike against those who have not taken care of the management of traffic; why not strike against those who provide licenses for more vehicles to come on the roads that are already congested; why not strike against those who are not taking care of road infrastructure; why not strike against reducing the size of public transport buses to a smaller sizes with more capacity; why not?
When businesses are competing in their landscape to improve every aspect of their business, why not let these transport agencies compete by changing the ways in which the traffic is managed? Or create forced discipline to commuters on a temporary and targeted basis? Why not limit the roads that can carry private vehicles? Why not limit the hours? Why not create road barricades to streamline and direct the traffic?
Let us strike picking up each of these issues as targets for an action committee or forum to come up with solutions. Where are those NGOs who can make a difference in extending their non-profit causes to include such initiatives? Why not educate the regulators, policy makers, law enforces to come to terms with the growing needs of a different kind that are stifling the progress achieved in other parts of the businesses?
Let us strike on the root causes of the problems rather than the symptoms of the problems