Cycle rickshaw pullers protest ban

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) Hundreds of cycle rickshaw pullers staged a protest in the capital today against a ban on cycle rickshaws in the Chandni Chowk area.

''It is incorrect to say that cycle rickshaws are responsible for traffic jams. The jam is caused by the fast increasing number of cars and other modes of modern transport,'' Dr Dinesh Mohan, an expert from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, said addressing the gathering.

''The government should ensure a separate lane on roads for cycle rickshaws,'' he said.

Speakers at the meeting, including social activists Swami Agnivesh and Madhu Kishwar and Jai Bhagwan Jatav of the Jan Chetna Manch, demanded that the ban on plying of cycle rickshaws at Chandni Chowk be lifted immediately.

Moreover, the government should provide industry status to the profession, give social security benefits to rickshaw pullers and make a new policy for rickshaws, they said.

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