Bengaluru drivers misled with fake relief forms

With no communication from the transport department on how it plans to distribute Rs 5,000 aid to autorickshaw and taxi drivers, conmen sold fake application forms for Rs 200, misleading thousands.

Drivers association members posted videos, showing drivers queuing up before photocopy machines near post offices to buy the fake forms. They filled in the details, attached copies of several documents and queued up again before the post offices to mail the form to Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi.

J K Diwakar, a driver, tried telling drivers queued up before the Banashankari post office that the forms were fake, but no one listened to him.

Tanveer Pasha, president of Ola, TaxiForSure and Uber Drivers and Owners Association, told DH that such queues were found before eight post offices. “The longest queues were seen at post offices at Rajajinagar, Girinagar, Peenya, Sunkadakatte, Bommanahalli and Kanakapura Road. Many bought the forms from conmen by paying Rs 200,” he said.

The government should have unveiled a system to enroll the drivers before announcing the scheme, the association said. “It was announced in a vacuum, allowing miscreants to step in and dupe the naive drivers,” Pasha said.

Seva Sindhu app

A transport department source said a meeting was held to find the best way to enroll the drivers. “The department plans to launch the enrollment through the Seva Sindhu app,” the source said.

Pasha said the department should have allayed the drivers’ concerns. “They should have released a press statement on the modalities of the enrollment. Lack of information has resulted in the drivers being misled,” he said, adding that Savadi would get at least 5,000 mails with fake applications in the next two days.