In the wake of the action initiated by the district administration against autorickshaw operators who have not installed meters, members of the Dharwad Auto Rickshaw Driver’s and Owner’s Association staged a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here Friday urging fulfilment of their demands.
They said that during a meeting convened by Deputy Commissioner P. Rajendra Cholan, autorickshaw operators had agreed to install meters and had placed some of their demands before the administration. However, those demands had not been met and the officials began seizing autorickshaws for not installing meters.
Their demands included opening of auto meter repair centres; more number of auto gas filling stations, among others. There were only five meter repair centres for nearly 15,000 auto rickshaws in the city. Moreover, the number of auto gas refilling stations too was less, they said. They also urged the district administration to release the seized auto rickshaws on humanitarian basis.
