Autorickshaw drivers from 12 organisations representing drivers operating in the city held a protest against alleged police harassment at Town Hall here on Tuesday.
Venkate Gowda, President, Karnataka Auto and Taxi Drivers Association, said that the autorickshaw drivers were protesting against the harassment of drivers by the police.
Policemen come in plain clothes and ask autorickshaw drivers to ferry them to some distant place. When the drivers refuse, or agree when the policemen themselves offer to pay more, the drivers are taken to the police station. They are fined and the police advise the Transport Department to cancel the driving license of the drivers.
He agreed that some drivers do refuse to take passengers to the place the latter requests but not all drivers are the same and that such drivers must be punished. However, it did not mean that all drivers trouble passengers and not all of them should be described as those who harrass passengers.
The protesters said that “MNC cabs” (cab aggregators) must not be allowed to operate vehicles within the city as they have State or National permits.
Maintaining that it was not easy to earn a livelihood by being an autorickshaw driver in Bengaluru, they demanded issue of Below Poverty Level (BPL) cards for autorickshaw drivers, facilitation of housing for them through Bangalore Development Authority or through Housing Board and setting up a separate Welfare Board for autorickshaw drivers.
The 12 organistaions to which the protesting drivers belonged included the Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU), Adarsha Autorickshaw Drivers’ Union, Karnataka Autorickshaw and Taxi Drivers’ Union and the Karnataka Rajiv Gandhi Autorickshaw Drivers Federation.
