Cops flag down errant autorickshaw drivers

Cops flag down errant autorickshaw drivers
Refusal To Hire, Excess Fare Demand, Meter-Tampering Attract Huge Penalties
The Times of India

Bangalore: Autorickshaw drivers, beware. If you turn away commuters, tamper with meter or demand excess fare, you’ll end up paying thousands of rupees in penalty.

The Road Transport Authority (RTA), in consultation with the Bangalore traffic police and transport department, has passed a resolution to increase penalties from the existing Rs 100 to Rs 300 to a mindnumbing Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 and revoking of permit if drivers flout the rule repeatedly.

Bangalore Urban deputy commissioner M A Sadiq, also RTA chairman, is expected to issue in twothree days a gazette notification empowering policemen and RTO sleuths to collect penalties. Autorickshaw drivers’ unions have approved the new fine structure to weed out black sheep among them, a senior transport official told The Times of India.

The volume of Rs 100-Rs 300 fine was not acting as a deterrent. “There’s no point collecting Rs 100 fine from 100 drivers every day. If we book even 10 drivers a day, send them to court and penalise them Rs 2,000, it’ll rightly chasten the city’s 70,000-plus auto drivers,’’ RTA secretary Syed Shafi Ahmed says.

An officer said the MV Act empowers the RTA to impose “any new permit’’ condition on auto drivers. “Under such a provision, the RTA refashioned the rule and increased the penalty slab.’’

First offence attracts a fine of Rs 2,000; if it’s repeated, the fine amount increases and the licence could be revoked. The auto driver, on his part, can challenge court’s decision of imposing the penalty if he is not guilty.



How and where to lodge a complaint

Send written complaints to dcptrafficeast@gmail.com or Traffic DCP (East), 3, Infantry Road, Bangalore - 1
Visit the nearest traffic police station or RTO office to lodge complaint
Visit malls which have traffic complaint card system and drop your complaint into a box
Call 103 for assistance to register complaint
145 city resident associations have been given complaint cards; complainants can pick up forms from them The complaints are sent to the automation enforcement centre, which sends notice to errant drivers
On his failure to provide proper explanation, the auto driver will be sent to court where hefty fine may be slapped The court may summon the complainant, if need be