State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote announced in the legislative council on Friday that is it now mandatory for all rickshaw, taxi drivers to display toll-free number 1800220110 stickers on their vehicles, making complaining against auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers’ impeachment easier for the commuters.
It is needless to say how many times we get into fights with cabbies and rickshaw drivers who refuse to ferry us. Commuters often end up paying an extra fare to such drivers as the meters are tweaked, while there are a lot of other ways they cheat the passengers. Auto-rickshaws and taxis clattering and obstructing the passage of the railway premises is also an issue that has sprung up in the present times. Anand Thakur has brought to light, a notable information in this context. Having suffered at the hands of auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, Vidya Chavan, Praveen Darekar, Hemant Takle, Prakash Gajbhie and Girish Vyas are in discussion and demand strict action against misbehaving drivers.
In reply to this demand, state transport minister appealed to the auto-taxi drivers to not behave rashly with the commuters. In Mumbai, there are 1,83,376 registered auto-rickshaws and 60,176 taxis. Between April 2017 to January 2018, 14,788 vehicles have been inspected, out of which 4328 vehicles were found without a licence, while the licences of 1,294 vehicles were suspended.
Since January, 32,000 cases have been filed against rickshaw and taxi drivers and the penalty has been recovered from them. Due to shortage of space, possessions of taxis and rickshaws is not feasible. Imposing such an order will help to counter the whims of the drivers. The transportation department lacks manpower.
About 40 per cent posts in the department are vacant. Discussions are on as whether or not, this issue can be resolved with the assistance of the Home Ministry. Raote also said that the Traffic Police will be ordered to bring the corrupt auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers to book.
Speaking of pollution control, Raote announced that Ola and Uber cabs will also be mandated to run as city taxis on CNG.
Over four lakh illegal auto-rickshaws are running in the state. If any step is taken to wipe them out, it will result in unemployment. Hence, all illegal auto-rickshaw drivers have been given a deadline of March 2018 to get their respective licences. Raote said that the period of the deadline may be extended for a couple of months if required.
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