The Kanchi Traffic police seized 10 mini-vans on Tuesday on charges of violation of permit conditions.
Enquiries reveal that the traffic police resorted to impounding of vehicles on Tuesday morning in view of a direction to initiate stern action against violators of vehicle permit conditions received by them from a higher official of the district administration.
A group of autorickshaw drivers, police said, met the District Collector, Ashish Chaterjee, on Monday and submitted a memorandum claiming that these mini-vans, for which tourist cab permits had been issued by the Regional Transport Authorities, were being operated as share auto services within the Kancheepuram Municipal Town limits.
Their operation affected the income of autorickshaw drivers, particularly in the mofussil bus stand-tollgate sector, where the autorickshaw drivers were already facing stiff competition from share auto services.
Subsequently, the traffic police were directed to impound these vehicles if found plying as share auto services within the town limit.
Meanwhile, some of the traffic policemen as well as mini-van owners said they were unable to understand the reason for singling out mini-van services while diesel auto-rickshaws were allowed to cater to the needs of commuters on the lines of share-auto services in Kancheepuram town.
In order to substantiate their argument, they recalled the ‘stern action' initiated by the traffic police against diesel autorickshaws few years ago when a diesel autorickshaw carrying more than its sanctioned capacity of three persons was hit by a speeding electrical multiple unit near Govindavadi Agaram near Thirumalpur railway station, killing more than 10 persons on the spot.
Subsequent to a major accident, diesel autorickshaws were ‘barred' from transporting more than three persons. However after a few months these autorickshaws started plying as ‘unauthorised' share auto services on the following routes: Kancheepuram bus termini to Iyyengarkulam / Dusi via District Collectorate and Sevilimedu; Kancheepuram to Kalakattur via Orikkai and Kuruvi Malai; Kancheepuram to Periyar Nagar via Gandhi Road and Tollgate and between Kancheepuram to Kizhambi via Olimohammedpettai.
Stating that they viewed the current development as a temporary hitch in their business, the mini-van owners expressed confidence that they could tide over the crisis with political support once the State administration gets relieved from the control of Election Commission.
Claiming that finding a solution to this problem was not difficult, they pointed out that allocation of particular corridors to each service, as done earlier when clash of interest cropped up between normal (petrol) and wide-bodied (diesel) autorickshaw owners, could be adopted for finding a solution to the current problem.
As per that agreement, it was decided that diesel autorickshaws should be operated on particular corridors only and they should not enter the District Collectorate campus to pick up or drop commuters, they pointed out.
