JOIN USBarring a few cities like Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore, the autorickshaw drivers across of other cities have not installed fare meters and take citizens for a ride. The people are forced to pay whatever demanded by the drivers without any talk. The attempts made by the administration in the past in this direction failed following stiff opposition from the drivers.
The new deputy commissioner, Dr K G Jadgish who took charge recently, has come forward to address this issue. He announced that he would soon convene a meeting of officials of various departments, representatives of autorickshaw drivers and owners association. The Regional Transport Department has begun surprise inspection of autorickshaws and imposing fine on the vehicles san fare meters.
Most importantly, the district administration has decided to run additional city buses to all localities.
Minimum fare
A few autorickshaw owners opined that if roads are repaired and minimum auto fare is increased, they would not oppose fixing fare meters. Moreover, the revised minimum auto fare in Bangalore and Mysore is ` 17 and 15 respectively, but it is ` 14 in Hassan. The minimum fare should be fixed on par with the other cities, they claimed.
There are 2,150 autorickshaws in Hassan and cases have been booked and fined against 363 autorickshaws in the last one year, said Regional Transport Officer Gopalakrishna. The onus lies on passengers who should ask drivers to put fare meters. If public come forward to file a case, the department would definitely take action against erring drivers, he assured.
While the new bus stand and introducing frequent bus services to all parts of the city has come as a boon to the passengers who are happy over saving some money, it has delivered a deadly blow to drivers here. The meeting to be chaired by the deputy commissioner next week, would stress on fixing auto meters and the officials too are expecting that the drivers would accept in adopting meters.