On Sunday, around 50 former drivers of the delivery company BluSmart protested at Jantar Mantar to demand severance compensation and relief from the government. The electric taxi service company halted its operations on 16th April, just one day after a related party entity, Gensol Engineering Limited, was pulled up by the SEBI for fund diversion and document falsification. This led to the sudden shutdown of the BluSmart services.

Shut down has hit Women drivers, especially those with no other source of livelihood. Many female drivers were taught how to drive a car completely free of cost through a joint venture with BluSmart. Its policy also allowed women to work under flexible timings, unlike other transport service providing companies, which usually demand a 12-hour shift.

With the halt in the services without any prior communication or clarity, the future of these female drivers now looks bleak. 

Workers At Stake

The salary of 10,000 drivers and nearly 800 BluSmart employees is also pending since March, the month when the credit rating agencies, ICRA and CARE, disparaged BluSmart’s parent company, Gensol Engineering Limited. But this crisis deepened last month when market regulator SEBI also accused Jaggi Brothers, the owner of Gensol Engineering Limited, of misusing INR 262 crore of the company loans for personal expenses, such as buying an apartment t a posh locality, expensive foreign trips, etc.