Auto crackdown on the cards

Auto crackdown on the cards

After an auto driver allegedly molested a woman, police mull over re-introducing the complaint card system

Shwetha S and Deepthi MS. Bangalore



The city police are contemplating the re-introduction of the complaint card system, meant to be distributed among the public to register their grouses against erring taxi and autorickshaw drivers.
The move follows the alleged molestation of a woman passenger by an auto driver near Big Bazaar on Old Madras Road on Sunday.
Responding to a specific question on how to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, police commissioner Shankar M Bidari said he would convene a meeting of traffic police officers to bring back the system. "The public can fill in the complaint card against the 'violation heads' found on it and send it to the traffic police, so action can be taken against erring autorickshaw drivers," he said.
The system, which did not achieve much success, was scrapped in favour of online complaints.
Meanwhile, a union of autorickshaw drivers condemned Sunday's incident and called for the mandatory display system in all autorickshaws, which will provide the unique number allotted to each driver. "As the number will be visible to passengers, it is likely to act as a deterrent to such ugly incidents," Manjunath, president of Adarsh Auto Drivers' Union, said.
Meanwhile, the police arrested a 25-year-old autorickshaw driver for allegedly molesting the woman passenger, PS Patil.
Identifying the accused as Babu Rajendra Prasad of KR Puram, police said they had seized his driving licence. He has been charged with Section 354 of the IPC (Assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty).