Bengaluru
autorickshaw drivers were fined for refusing to ply to certain destinations,
demanding more fare and also not having valid or improper documents.
Traffic police in Bengaluru on Tuesday went on a crackdown
against errant autorickshaw drivers who refused to ply on metered fares or
denied rides in three out of the seven zones of the city. To catch offenders in
the act, police officials posed as regular commuters in prime junctions under
these zones and asked to be dropped at various locations in the city.
In total more than 5,200 drivers were slapped with fines by
the police across the city. The violations included refusing to ply to certain
destinations, demanding more fare and also not having valid or improper
documents.
The number of auto drivers refusing rides were 797 in the
East zone, 697 in the West zone and 81 in the North zone. Similarly, those
demanding extra fare were 682 in the East, 604 in the West and 60 in the North
zone. Another 212 autos from the East zone and 280 from West zone were seized
by the police for having no or improper documents carried by the drivers. In
these three zones, another 2,000-odd auto drivers were fined for minor offences
like not wearing uniform and other violations. All these violations resulted in
the traffic police collecting Rs 8,06,200 in fines.
One traffic constable working in Chickpet Police Station in
the West Zone said, “Only two out of 10 auto drivers will agree to go to a
distance of more than 4-5 km on metre. This is the complaint we keep on getting
from the public as well.”
Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) BR Ravikant Gowda
said that similar drives will be carried out in other zones of the city as well
in light of multiple complaints against auto drivers. This drive from the
traffic police comes after a similar initiative in July when more than 9,000
auto drivers were fined.
Narayan Swamy, President of Adarsh Auto Driver Union in
Bengaluru said, “These drives are important. Because of some auto drivers who
over charge, all auto drivers get a bad name and people prefer Uber/ Ola cabs
instead of autos. This results in less business for us”
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