It all began with a routine check of his jeep by Transport Department officials near Yeshwantpur in 2013. For Waseem Memon, this low key encounter with officials, who demanded payment of road tax for his Andhra Pradesh registered Jeep, resulted in a group, which is now 65,000 strong and is demanding rollback of a controversial legislation forcing people from out of State to pay huge amounts as road tax.
“They asked me to come to the RTO with the invoice of the vehicle and other documents. What confused me was the fact that it was registered in 1942. The officials themselves were confused when I asked them where I should source the invoice from. They asked me to leave. However, there was another family there who I later got in touch with. The lady had to pawn her jewellery to pay the road tax despite paying it at the time of registration in her own home State,” Mr. Memon says.
The consequent shortening of the time that a vehicle from out of State is permitted to ply within Karnataka from 12 months to 30 days irked Memon even more. “My case with the Jeep became a little popular and people started contacting me. This is when I thought there will be more people like me who are being forced to pay unreasonable road tax,” he says.
A Facebook group looking to share experiences was the next step. “I started Justice for Non Karnataka Vehicle Owners as a platform for people who were being forced to pay tax despite having documents to prove they had not stayed in Karnataka for more than 30 days. The page was shared on several motoring forums and we had many members sign up. Slowly, as more States changed their rules to the 30-day limit, we realised we had a national problem on our hands. This gave rise to the other group Drive Without Borders,” Mr. Memon says.
Today, the group has people from all around the country as members. Waseem is the point man for several people who have doubts about the entire tax setup and gets around 50-80 messages a day on Facebook. The groups are also fighting the legislation in the High Court.
“When we started, people did not know the difference between an RTO official and traffic police. Today, they are well-versed with the rules. People are filing RTI applications as well as fighting court cases,” he says.
Three things he wants done by the State
1: Rationalisation of school fees in private schools.
2. Spending tax collected by Transport Department on upkeep of roads
3: Proper collection of garbage from all areas in the city
Two things he wants people of Bengaluru to do
1: Do not ignore people being harassed by anyone and do not bow to harassment
2: Do not aid corruption or accept bribes
Things he is working on
1: Karnataka High Court cases appealing against the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation Amendment Act (2014), which reduced the deadline for out of State vehicles from 12 months to 30 days.
2: A court case in Jammu and Kashmir against the alleged taxi mafia, which discourages and attacks tourists who drive their own cars
3: Civic infrastructure issues within Bengaluru
4: A court case in Telangana regarding motorists being stopped even without a State specific amendment
