October 03, 2008

Crackdown on Autorickshaws !!!

I wonder why Delhi is always playing by the side of its bigger problems, e.g. when roads give way to rains every year simply because of wrong gradients (slope), poor drainage and cheap material, the govt carries out stupid repairs/patchwork at the end of monsoons and claims to have put things back in shape. Similarly this time around, when the entire city is reeling (or to be more apt ‘crushing’) under Bluelines owing to rough unreigned driving, police is busy trying to control auto-rickshaws which I think is secondary or rather a tertiary problem as a fallout of poor transportation system.
I use autos almost every week and think that ever since their pricing was revised upwards, most of them are willing to abide by the meter. Similarly, if you compare them to autowallas in other parts of the country, Delhi’s autowallas would get rated amonst the top if not at the top notch behaviour.
Am I all praise for Delhi’s autowallas? No. There is a problem with the system but yes much less than what it was earlier. But if we need to address problems that plague the city then Blueline beats every other problem hands down. Over 100 deaths every year in Delhi alone (and perhaps Delhi alone because nowhere else they ply so unruly).

What can be done to curb this? Delhi spends crores of rupee to paint the bus lane on its roads to show to world what a disciplinary system they have in place. DTP highlights the same on its website as well. But only time you find these buses within this lane is at stops where they be crushed under its tyres.Only if the buses can be made to ply within these lanes and made to stick to speed limits, these accidents shall automatically stand reduced to a fraction of what they are right now.

But what is the way to do it? Last year it attracted limelight from all the media who cried at the pitch of their voices to get some action taken against this gruesome mass murders but all that Delhi got was removal of some buses and ensuring fitness tests. However, Delhi Traffic Police never even once promised to take the right actions which is to make these buses abide the rules.

I invite my readers to come up with feasible (even if they are difficult) suggestions to curb this menace which Delhi has. I’ll try my best to make the voices heard to the right people and do more things which you may suggest.

3 comments:

Rakesh Agarwal said...

I thought I was the only one who didn't see autorickshaw drivers so adversely. Please visit www.nyayabhoomi.org to see what we are doing.

CITY ZEN said...

Hi Rakesh
Thanks for adding support.

Your blog shows no posts, maybe its down for some reason. If I am not wrong, I have seen Nyayabhoomi on many autos fighting for rights of autos for price rise till sometime back. Is that correct?

Do update about your blog.
cheers

Rakesh Agarwal said...

You are right indeed. Our goal is to create an autorickshaw service that the citizens of Delhi can be proud of. Passengers have the right to an honest, pofessional and safe mode of public transport at an affordable cost and the drivers should get decent price for the service rendered and have right to dignity. We have never written anything in our blog. We work long hours and have hardly the time to indulge in such pursuits. We wish we had someone to write the blog for us.