The Hindu : 8,000 autos running with invalid permit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 15, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

8,000 autos running with invalid permit

By Govind D. Belgaumkar

BANGALORE, MARCH 14. The Transport Department finds itself in a quandary being unable to take action against nearly 8,000 autorickshaws that are plying in the city with invalid permit.

Sources told The Hindu that a key reason for this was that the department could not find place to keep these vehicles, if impounded. As per rules, the department should hand over the vehicles to the police. But the police were not willing to keep them apparently for want of space. They were even prepared to "give it in writing", the sources added.

It all started with the Government issuing a notification on January 2 this year making it obligatory for all autorickshaws registered on or after April 1, 2002 to fix to the vehicle a system that uses liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuel by February 29, 2004. It said: "The permit shall be deemed to be invalid unless the vehicle is fitted with the LPG kits approved by the competent authority... "

By virtue of this clause, nearly 8,000 autorickshaws, which do not have LPG kits, are running in the city without valid permit. The sources said the notification had been issued without taking the reality into consideration. It was not possible to get all autorickshaws change over to LPG within such a short period. The Government could have considered an easier option, such as making it obligatory for the autorickshaws to get the conversion done when they went for renewal of permit. All the autorickshaws were given five-year permits. And, every month about 500 autorickshaw owners got their permits renewed, the sources said.

On the other hand, the permits of these autorickshaws could not be regularised as the notification had rendered them invalid. There was no provision under the notification for reconsidering even if the owners of these vehicles got LPG kits fitted to their vehicles. The only option left was to modify the notification, the sources said.

Another reason for not ensuring compliance with the notification was that the autorickshaw drivers' unions had put forth a series of conditions such as fixing of the price of LPG kits at Rs. 12,000 and making a soft loan available to purchase them. They also wanted a subsidy of Rs. 2,000 from the Government. The Transport Department invited a few bank executives and the general secretary of the Autorickshaw Drivers' Union, H.G. Srinivasamurthy, for a discussion on financing the kits on Friday last. The discussions remained inconclusive.

Mr. Srinivasamurthy said the department had promised to make the kits available for Rs. 12,000. However, the department denied this.

Mr. Srinivasamurthy said the city did not have adequate LPG filling stations. This meant that autorickshaws would have to run on petrol if the gas exhausted or take the vehicles a long distance to get gas filled again.

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