Bengaluru: Auto drivers' unions have opposed the recent call by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) to make proficiency in Kannada mandatory for auto and cab drivers operating in the state, aiming to improve passenger-driver communication and protect regional language culture.
A similar mandate has been passed by the Maharashtra government.
Such a mandate is "unnecessary" in Bengaluru, given the cosmopolitian nature of the city crowd, said D Rudramurthy, general secretary of the Auto Rickshaw Drivers' Union (ARDU).
"The city has a dynamic crowd, and given how digitised everything is, Kannada proficiency is no longer necessary to be able to ride an auto in Karnataka. You put the location on an app, and pay through another app; so there is little room left for conversation. Drivers in Bengaluru are mostly multilingual, and they're making a living for themselves. Such a mandate can hurt the livelihoods of thousands," he said.
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Auto drivers urged the government to instead focus on helping the community sail through the ongoing gas crisis.
"We don't want this. People are making these claims on our behalf without consulting us. We have bigger things to worry about. The current LPG crisis is impacting the livelihoods of auto drivers everywhere. We want the government to provide aid for us," said C Sampath, general secretary of Adarsha Auto Drivers Union. Overall, auto drivers that DH soke to expressed similar opinions, rejecting KPCC's recommendations.
However, a few cab drivers opined that regulation was necessary to bring order into the sector.
"This year alone, approximately 5,000 cab drivers from Kerala have entered the sector, and their movement is going unchecked. There are also a large number of cab drivers coming in from Punjab. We have also come across some cases of drug peddling by out-of-state drivers," claimed Tanveer Pasha, president of Ola Uber Drivers' and Owners' Association, adding that either a language-related or a stricter form of regulation by the government was the need of the hour.