If there is one tussle that is constant in Bengaluru, it is between auto rickshaw drivers and their passengers. Every day on the internet, there are at least one or two people complaining about being asked for extra money by auto drivers. The Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) reportedly get 20-25 calls daily on their hotline for auto rickshaw complaints.
In 2024, until 31 July, BTP has booked 2,586 complaints against auto drivers for refusing to go on hire and 2,582 complaints for demanding excess fare. This is higher than the number of cases booked against these violations in the 12 months in 2022 and 2023.
While the traffic police had booked 2,183 cases for refusing to go on hire and 2,179 cases against demand for excess fare in 2022, they had booked 1,537 and 1,599 cases respectively in 2023. BTP officials attribute the increase in the number of cases in 2024 to regular drives against auto rickshaw drivers.
“Every day we conduct one or the other special drive and most of those have been against auto drivers this year as we received a lot of complaints from the public. The drives were conducted in places where there is a high footfall of people like metro stations, railway stations, malls and hospitals. We have decoys who ask auto drivers for a ride and when they refuse or demand extra fare, we book a case against them,” M. N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner (Traffic), Bengaluru told The Hindu.
He also said there had been an increase in the public reporting of cases. However, not all of these are formal complaints and sometimes citizens only give them the registration numbers of the auto rickshaws and the police take necessary action. “We also receive complaints on 112 now. We want the public to know that they can report their grievances against auto rickshaw drivers on 112 also,” Mr. Anucheth said.
Auto rickshaw drivers, on the other hand, say that with inflation, it is becoming impossible for them to provide rides without demanding more money. “After changing meter fares in 2013, they did not revise it until 2021. In many other districts both within and outside of the State, meter fares are revised regularly. But in Bengaluru, that is not the case,” said Rudramurthy, general secretary of Auto Rickshaw Drivers’ Union (ARDU).
“A decade ago, the price of an auto rickshaw was ₹1.5 lakh, today it is ₹3 lakh. The prices of spare parts have skyrocketed and just on Wednesday gas price increased by ₹2 per litre. If metre fares are revised regularly, then auto rickshaw drivers would also not demand fares over and above the metre. Nobody is taking a solution-based approach to our problems,” he added.
Prepaid auto counters
BTP has 18 prepaid auto rickshaw counters set up across the city, of which 17 are currently functional (the counter near East Railway station is being relocated). Overall, 1,000–1,500 rides are booked through these counters in a day
However, passengers feel that with many of these counters being closed by 10 p.m., they are at the mercy of exorbitant prices quoted by the auto drivers in the night hours.
“We are aware that the law permits them to charge 1.5x fare after 10 p.m., but the drivers demand double or triple the actual fare, especially in prime locations like M. G. Road. Even on weekends, the prepaid auto counter there will be closed by 10p.m.-10.30 p.m. and we are forced to wait for a long duration to catch a ride on one of the aggregator apps,” said Niharika. S., an engineer from Kalyan Nagar.
BTP officials said that with the force operating with high vacancies, it gets difficult to run the counters late in the night. “Some of our counters do operate until late in the night, especially during the weekends. On other days, it depends on how many people we are operating with,” Mr. Anucheth said.
Published - September 05, 2024 04:02 pm IST
