Kejri puts brakes on city cops, auto drivers get relief

Vehicles won't be impounded for minor cases like refusal

In a big relief for the autorickshaw and taxi drivers, Arvind Kejriwal-led government has curtailed the special powers of Delhi Traffic Police to impound vehicles in cases of minor traffic violations such as turning down passengers and driving without uniform.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the State Transport Authority, which was chaired by Transport Secretary and Commissioner Gitanjali Gupta. In a move to woo autorickshaw drivers, who have been the AAP’s trusted vote bank, the party before coming to power had promised to scrap section 66/192 (A) of the Motor Vehicles Act, saying that the traffic policemen use it to harass autorickshaw drivers.

But traffic police can still confiscate autorickshaws if the drivers does not have his licence, fitness certificate or permit. Those involved in serious traffic violations can also lose the permit to ply vehicles in the city.

Earlier, the Sheila Dikshit government had given a special powers to traffic police under rule of 66/192 (A) to impound vehicles in case of refusal, overcharging or driving without public service vehicle badges or uniform.

Now such violations will only invite challans, a senior government official said. But the move has not gone down well with the traffic police. About 50 to 70 calls of refusals by auto drivers are registered every day, mostly from crowded areas during peak hours, a senior traffic police officer said. 

For a long time, autorickshaw and taxi unions had been mounting pressure on governments, alleging that traffic police “slap 66/192 (A) at their whim”.

“It had become a tool to harass auto drivers. For getting the impounded vehicles released, we had to make rounds of the court and deposit a hefty challan,” Rajender Soni of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh said.