Not only City traffic police and transport officials, but also autorickshaw drivers have started gearing up for the December 16 deadline for recalibration of autorickshaw meters.
Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials said that a total of 5,708 autorickshaws in the city have been recalibrated till November 30.
Two months were given for autorickshaws to recalibrate the meters after new fares for the city were fixed (Rs. 25 for the first 1.8 kms and Rs. 12 a km thereafter) by the government with effect from October 17.
With more than 67 percent of the nearly 8,500 autorickshaws in the city having completed recalibration, RTO officials and the police are hopeful that the remaining vehicles would be recalibrated in time.
FleecingAbout the drive to check fleecing that was jointly initiated by the police and RTO from November 1, an RTO official said that they have received six such complaints till November 30.
Four vehicles were seized as the complainants could furnish full details such as date of journey, vehicle fare, actual fare displayed in the meter and excess fare collected by the driver.
While the fine imposed for collecting excess fare is only Rs. 300, they had to pay Rs. 1,400 to Rs. 1,800 as they were booked for other offences too.
Above all, the vehicles could not be used to do business for more than a week as they were parked in the RTO offices till the formalities for releasing them were completed.
The official said that action could not be taken on the two other complaints, as the callers made general allegations against a couple of autorickshaw stands.
However, the official said that Motor Vehicle inspectors inspected those stands and warned the drivers not to fleece commuters.
A total of 2,628 autorickshaws have been booked for various violations in November.
Fine to the tune of Rs. 3,21,350 was collected from them and that they have proposed to collect Rs. 2,46,600 more from offenders, for which slips have been issued to offenders.
The RTO offices have also seized 66 autorickshaws without meters, vehicles with malfunctioning meters and vehicles plying without permit.
AttitudeOn the other hand, commuters observed that there is a change in the attitude of drivers since the enforcement agencies are strictly monitoring if there was fleecing. Drivers once demanded exorbitant fares from the commuters and even picked a quarrel with them.
“Now they are requesting with a smile if they could keep change of Rs. 5 or 10 that they had to give us back,” says R. Mahalakshmi of Ramanathapuram.
R.Vimal Kumar adds from Tirupur:
Expressing displeasure over the new fare slabs proposed and seeking more time to fix fare meters, the autorickshaw drivers in Tirupur city observed one day strike on Tuesday.
According to them, the authorities should give three more months to allow the autorickshaw owners to fix the meters since the gadget is not available in Tirupur.
DemandA major demand regarding the fares was that the District Collector in consultation with the autorickshaw drivers should fix the fares specifically for the district.
“The charge fixed for Chennai city cannot be followed in Tirupur. In Chennai, auto rickshaws will be able to get passengers even while on move and on return journeys.
“However, drivers in Tirupur cannot enjoy such pleasures and hence, fares need to be fixed a bit higher than in Chennai,” CITU state secretary M. Chandran pointed out. The drivers here wanted to fix the minimum slab at Rs. 30 for every 1.5 km instead of the government norms of Rs. 25 for 1.8 kms.
Similarly, they wanted Rs. 15 for every additional kilometre travelled against Rs. 12 fixed.
The drivers also conducted a demonstration in the city.
