First, it was a crackdown on daylight fleecing of passengers by autorickshaw drivers. Now, the city police have trained its guns on the ‘permit rental business’, which forces many drivers to demand exorbitant fares.
Recently, the police had chanced upon two persons, Aji Cherian and Baputty, who used to lend their auto permits for hefty daily rent. While Aji was charging Rs.1,750 per week from the drivers, Baputty charged Rs.1,900 per week.
During the investigation, the police seized 82 permits from the two persons. The police also filed a report to the Regional Transport Officer for the cancellation of these permits.
“In fact, the hefty rent being charged by the permit owners is forcing drivers to pass on the burden to customers,” said Harishankar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kochi city. The police have identified several such groups operating within the city limits. These groups promise people fixed returns and take bulk auto permits by using their addresses. They then rent out the vehicle to persons coming to the city looking for jobs on a weekly rental basis that would be as high as Rs.2000 per week.
Auto drivers’ unions in the city maintained that the practice had been there at least for the last two decades.
“We do not see anything wrong with this as long as the permit holders do not charge a daily rent of over Rs.250. For, many of the auto drivers in the city have given up this profession over the years because of its difficult working conditions,” said K.R. Saju, secretary of the AITUC- affiliated Auto Drivers Federation in Kochi.
Meanwhile, the CITU-affiliated Autorickshaw Drivers Association pointed out that majority of the auto drivers who took the vehicles on weekly rental basis hailed from outside the district and demanded distribution of new city permits to check the practice. “The average income of an auto driver who works for eight hours in Kochi is just Rs.480, of which about Rs.200 will be spent on fuel. Hence, those driving on rented permits will naturally be forced to fleece passengers,” said V.V. Praveen, secretary of the organisation’s Ernakulam district unit.
