Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany urged autorickshaw unions to withdraw the strike prior to any discussion. He said the Corporation has made its  position clear in the issue but has not initiated any formal discussions with autorickshaw unions as the district collectorate is already looking into the issue.

“The reasoning that traffic blockades are a regular incident in Kochi and that it results in fuel loss, as the auto drivers complain about, seems to be quite convincing. Discussions should focus on finding a realistic remedy for this problem,” said the Mayor.

But, he added that the solution cannot be met with doing away with metering. “Meter should be down, that’s what the law states and it’s beyond negotiation. And all union leaders whom I have met have agreed to this, it’s only that they want their issues to be resolved,” he said.

The Mayor was said that metering system needs some revision.

 “It’s high time we fix city limit for meters so that the rates to ply inside the city will be different from that to the hinterlands. I understand that this a common practise in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode,” said Tony Chammany.