The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Autorickshaw fare: meeting today

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Autorickshaw fare: meeting today

Staff Reporter

80 drivers booked for fleecing passengers

Revision due only if LPG price touches Rs. 40 a litre
ARDU threatens indefinite strike from February 1

BANGALORE: Even as 80 autorickshaw drivers were booked for collecting excessive fare from an incensed public, the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), Bangalore, has convened a meeting of drivers’ unions and others concerned to consider the demand for fare revision on Thursday.

The fares were last revised on March 6, 2006 on condition that no revision should be sought until the auto LPG price touched Rs. 40. At present, a litre of auto LPG cost Rs. 35.38. Many drivers have been producing before bemused passengers what they called a “revised tariff card” and demanding more.

While a few passengers fought back, the rest have been paying the “revised” fares since Tuesday. The revised fare chart shows the minimum fare to be Rs. 15 instead of Rs. 12 with incremental increases for every km thence.

Cases booked

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Neelam Achyuta Rao told presspersons here on Wednesday that the police had booked 80 autorickshaw drivers for collecting excess fare since Tuesday and added the drive against illegal collection would continue.

Unjust

The All Karnataka State Autorickshaw Drivers’ Welfare Joint Action Committee has termed the recent strike by autorickshaw drivers as not fair.

Committee Chairman Mohammed Abbas in a press release said that by resorting to strike, the autorickshaw drivers had put thousands of innocent passengers to inconvenience.

As per the last revision order of the RTA, no claim for revision should be made till the auto LPG price touches Rs. 40 a litre.

The total cost of operation of an autorickshaw per kilometre, including driver’s salary, comes to Rs. 5.32 and while the present fare per kilometre is Rs. 6, he said.

To go on strike

The Adarsha Auto and Taxi Drivers’ Union had said it would hold an indefinite autorikshaw strike from February 1 if fare revision was not done. Union president M. Manjunath told presspersons on Wednesday that while auto LPG price was constantly on the rise, LPG filling stations have been “cheating” autorickshaw drivers in terms of measurement.

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