Buses come to rescue

Buses come to rescue
Auto Strike Total In Bangalore, Commuters Bear The Brunt As Usual
The Times of India

Bangalore: Life in Bangalore was normal on Thursday. The air was clean and the roads less chaotic. Why? The 75,000-odd autorickshaws, apart from factory buses, were off the road owing to the strike.
Except for a few stray incidents of stone-throwing, the strike did not inconvenience majority of the citizens as they used private transport and company vehicles’ pick-drop facility. All the public sector under-takings, including defence installations, and small-scale industries shut shop. The PSUs had a “Holiday Today” board put up while some associations also staged dharnas in front of the factories. The CITU-backed strike is to draw attention of the UPA government to implement the sixth Pay Commission, oppose foreign direct investment and price hike.
Those Bangaloreans without private vehicles, however, missed the three-wheelers. Even though the authorities pressed over 250 additional buses into service, BMTC buses were packed. The lunch-hour routes, which are normally lean, were also houseful. The BMTC deployed 15 buses from the airport and all buses outbound from Kempe Gowda bus stand halted at the city railway station.
A few autos were seen plying in extension areas for excess fare. The absence of autos pushed demand for city taxis as well. The cabs put their meter down and demanded double or even triple fares.
Though financial institutions were closed, some extension branches worked for half-day. The state government employees did not participate in the strike despite a call from the employees federation. The essential services did not suffer as goods vehicles were not part of the strike.
And by evening everything bounced back to normal: the honking of autos and the usual “oneand-a-half or double fare” mess.
4 auto drivers held
Police arrested four autorickshaw drivers and trade unionists in Wilson Garden and Silver Jubilee Park police station limits as they were found carrying petrol in bottles which could have been used as high explosive Molotov cocktails, informed N S Meghrikh additional commissioner. A group pelted stones at two BMTC buses in SJP. A few autorickshaw drivers threatened to launch road blocks in Bommanahalli, Electronic City and Peenya but were prevented by the police.
Police had deployed 55 platoons of armed police from city armed reserve and KSRP.
WHY THIS NOISE?
The auto strike was the fallout of the authorities resorting to stringent enforcement to counter autodriver indiscipline. City autorickshaws are known for their refusal to ferry passengers to their destinations. Every auto-user swears by this.
Sample this: for every 10 accidents in Bangalore, one will be caused by an autorickshaw. Of the cases that are booked against autos, 48 per cent of violations are for “refusal to go”, 24 per cent for overloading and 22 per cent are for demanding excess fare, reveals a study conducted on the “role of autorickshaws in accidents and road safety” by Traffic Engineers and Safety Trainers (TEST).
Growing dissatisfaction among the bus passengers over poor scheduling, longer walking and waiting time have resulted in growth of autos. Every year, autos injure more than 800 people and in fact crossed the 1,100 mark last year.
The violations committed by autos show an upward trend with respect to refusal to go, defective fare meter, accidents due to over loading. The over loading has taken a lead role as more than six school children are ferried in the vehicles while stipulation is for six only.