Cab drivers in Pune face difficulties as inter-district movement remains restricted in Maharashtra

Several cab drivers in Pune are bearing the brunt as the inter-district movement continues to remain restricted for almost four months now in the State amid COVID-19 crisis.

Manav Vikas Cab Sangathan, Maharashtra, Head President, Sanjay Nandan Pawar told that the government did not even think about the cab drivers before imposing the lockdown.

"It's been four months now and our business is shut. We have also sold the jewellery we had in order to earn our livelihood," he added.

Speaking to a cab driver said, "It is difficult to manage our expenses as the business has been affected completely. Moreover, we have now started getting calls from banks for EMI's."

Another cab driver, Praveen Narayan said that his cab was parked at his place since March due to COVID-19 crisis following which he has not earned much. He has also exhausted all his savings and has borrowed money from others to survive amid the current situation.

"Earlier I used to get at least 20 trips in a month but now I get only one or two trips in a month by from which I hardly earn Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 in a month. It is difficult to run our livelihood with this income. Apart from this customer refuse to pay return fare when they apply E pass for travel, with this many customers even avoid travelling as they need to pay a double fair and apply for passes to travel from one place to other," said another cab driver.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 9,601 new COVID-19 cases and 322 deaths, taking the state's count of coronavirus cases to 4,31,719.

The active cases in the state stand at 1,49,214 while 2,66,883 people have recovered from the infection.

( With inputs from ANI )