Drivers and representatives of various autorickshaw associations appealed to the police to take into account their livelihood and consider allowing autorickshaws on N.S.B. Road in the city.
Blaming the autorickshaws alone for causing hindrance to vehicular and public movements along N.S.B. Road was unacceptable, an auto driver said at the interactive meeting while appealing to the police to carry out a study to find out reasons for the traffic hold ups along the busy stretch.
When other private three-wheelers and four-wheelers were permitted on the N.S.B. Road, why restrict only autorickshaws, some of the drivers questioned. The police should take into account the livelihood of the autorickshaw drivers as they were solely dependent on the daily trips, they said.
Autorickshaw drivers were facing threat from share autorickshaws and mini buses, they said appealing to the police not to divide them by providing stickers only to drivers operating in the Fort Range. The police should take a humanitarian approach on this issue, they said. Why penalise all drivers for the mistakes committed by a handful, another driver said. They appealed to the police not to abuse auto drivers.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Ramesh Babu reiterated that autorickshaws with passengers would be allowed on the N.S.B Road and that they would not be permitted to park anywhere along the stretch.
Stating that the police was implementing the regulation on a “pilot basis”, he said the police were open to any suggestions from the drivers. The intention was definitely not to hit your livelihood, he told the drivers.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic (North), S. Ponnumalai, asked the drivers not to carry more than five schoolchildren in their vehicles.
Mr. Ramesh Babu said that the Fort Police had alone booked around 900 cases against violators for parking vehicles on the N.S.B. Road in the past few days.
