The City police on Monday cracked the whip on autorickshaw drivers for various violations and unfriendly attitude towards passengers, registering more than 5,000 cases.
The police conducted a 12-hour special drive that began at 5 am in all traffic police station limits and concluded at 5 pm. The drive was one of the biggest ever in the City and the police registered 5,172 cases and seized 934 autorickshaws.
“The police received a large number of complaints about autorickshaw drivers through social media. Most of them related to demanding excess fare and refusing to go on hire to the destinations of passengers’ choice. Hence, the police conducted a special drive and booked the violators,” Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic & security) B Dayananda told Deccan Herald.
“We will consider action against drivers of the autorickshaws seized and will write to the Regional Transport Authorities recommending suspension of driving licence of some of the drivers,” Dayananda said. “We will continue such drivers against those who have failed to follow the norms,” he added.
“We were told that most drivers would demand exorbitant fare from passengers who would get down at railway stations and bus stands early in the morning. Many of them would even refuse pleas of the passengers to drop them at their respective destination. There were lots of complaints about meter-tampering,” said a senior police officer.
There were complaints about unfriendly attitude of autorickshaw drivers. A few of them would use foul language and ill-treat passengers. Some of them even had criminal background. Many autorickshaw drivers did not have proper documents. The drive was necessary, said Dayananda.
DCP (traffic-East) M N Baburajendra Prasad and DCP (traffic-West) S Girish supervised the drive in which over 600 policemen of various ranks participated.
Meanwhile, members of the Autorickshaw Drivers’ Union staged a protest in front of the Jayanagar traffic police station, where maximum cases were booked, and condemned the drive. They urged the police to immediately halt the drive which had affected auto drivers and passengers alike. They criticised the police as they failed to act against errant drivers, instead targeting innocent and law-abiding ones
