A more ‘just and realistic’ fare revision policy was on the cards for the Capital’s autorickshaw drivers, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced here on Sunday.
A committee dedicated solely to the objective has been created and will submit its report to the government within a month, Mr. Kejriwal said. Revised fares based on a pre-determined and an almost mathematical formula were expected to surface as early as the coming financial year, a source told The Hindu .
“For the BJP , the term ‘ease of doing business’ extends only to corporate companies and wealthy industrialists. But for us, it is restricted to the aam aadmi like the average auto driver,” the Chief Minister declared among a sizable gathering of auto drivers at the AAP Government’s Auto Samvad in North Delhi’s Burari.
Giving ‘half the credit’ for the AAP’s ‘historic political mandate’ to its auto drivers and expressing his gratitude for carrying his picture behind their vehicles in the run-up to the elections, Mr. Kejriwal did, however, issue a word of caution, too.
“Several of you reportedly harassed passengers during the last week’s DTC bus strike. I hope you won’t let it happen ever again. Just serve the people of Delhi with folded hands for a year and I am certain they will gladly pay you more fare,” he said.
According to a government source, the five-member committee will be headed by a joint commissioner and have two deputy commissioners, a controller of accounts, and a representative from a union of auto rickshaw drivers as members. The committee will look into the rate of minimum wages determined by the Labour Department, fluctuations in CNG prices, and the price index to formulate revised auto fares at the beginning of every consecutive financial year beginning April, 2016. Meanwhile, Transport Minster Gopal Rai accused the Centre of moving heaven and earth to destabilise the Delhi Government due to ‘its fear of the AAP’s political model’. “You, the auto drivers of Delhi carried Arvind Kejriwal to victory. The whole country is now looking to the Capital to see when he (Mr. Kejriwal) becomes the Prime Minister – that is what troubling the BJP,” Mr. Rai said.
