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Law & Order

With the streamlining of city permits for autorickshaws taking an unusually long time, passengers are at the receiving end, says Anand Haridas

Setting the meter right

The issue of ensuring a proper travel fare system for autorickshaws in the city seems to take more time in sorting out. The Regional Transport Office is tied up with the streamlining of city permits and the trade unions have already started raising protests over promises being broken.

The RTO had begun the work of confirming whether the autorickshaws with city permits right now are actually operating and found out that around 1,500 autorickshaws did not turn up for verification. The attempt was to free the non-operational permits and issue them to new ones.

"This will take another couple of months, as the Regional Transport Authority is thinking of giving one month time for any of these missing autorickshaws to report. Already, some of them have contacted us," M.N. Prabhakaran, Regional Transport Officer, said.

The trade unions are complaining that the decision to restrict the permits to 1,500 is not fair as more permits would be needed to meet the requirements of the city. After issuing the new permits, the total number of autorickshaws allowed to operate from city limits will be 4,000.

Even this does not solve the issue of autorickshaws coming in from neighbouring panchayats. Autorickshaw drivers coming into the city from nearby areas such as Padivattom are asking for return fares from the passengers, as they cannot take passengers from the city.

"There is no way in resolving this discrepancy. Vehicles that are issued permits by panchayats have no other way than reaching an agreement with the passengers on the fare," C.C. Siddharthan, Autorickshaw Drivers' Federation (AITUC), said.

All the trade unions have come together to form a coordination committee to take up discussions with the RTA and the police. "We have also suggested reworking the city limits. The recent move by City Traffic Police to extend the city limits for pre-paid autorickshaw system till Kalamukku in Vypeen was opposed," he said.

The trade union coordination committee has been demanding that the exact requirement of autorickshaws for the city for effective implementation of digital meters. "This, along with identity cards, will help effective prevention of outsiders from operating inside the city. This will also help to filter out criminals from coming into the city under the disguise of autorickshaw drivers," Mr. Siddharthan said. Till a system is in place, the police are also finding it hard to implement the law. "We can only take up individual complaints and we need to verify them for overcharging. There is nothing much we can do as there are many vehicles in the city working without permits," said James Joseph, Assistant Commissioner of Police, City Traffic (East).

With no immediate solution in sight, the passengers remain a confused lot.

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