In todays Wall Street journal there was an article on the fact that the old cabbies in Bombay are beating up Meru Cab drivers because people prefer to take Meru cabs -
online.wsj.com/article/SB125668745618111751.html
This and the recent auto strike in Bangalore represent what is wrong with the way things are run in Bombay and Bangalore. In Bangalore the good autos which had upgraded to LPG and four-stroke were penalized by requiring them to repaint as opposed to the polluting, noiisy old autos - which are never going to go off the roads unless there is some strength of conviction on the part of the city's administrators. That may be too much to ask for given their `swalpa adjust madi' attitude.
Nevertheless, as is the case with everything there is nothing unique to Bombay or Bangalore with these problems. Solutions have been foiund elsewhere. One possible approach is the one taken by New York City
blogs.lctmag.com/lctblog/archive/2008/11/14/NYC-Offers-Incentives-for-Taxis-to-Increase-MPG.aspx
where fleet owners were incentivesed to move to more fuel efficient taxis by allowing them to charge more for leasing the cabs and drivers benefitted as the more fuel efficient cars meant they saved on gas. Perhaps something similar will work here. Certainly the same thing applies to fleet owned autos and individual auto drivers will benefit as the fuel costs are a lot less.
Ramesh
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Auto atrocities -Are our authorities so impotent to enforce law?
This may be a very blunt question. But the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. Ask senior citizens, lonely elderly ladies, foreign visitors, young BPO / ITeS working girls, school children and late night users of autos - they will narate horrifying experiences with automen (exclude some good automen who can be counted on fingers).
Complaint to authorities? Fingers point from one authority to another - nobody is ready to help the gullible public - helplines are lying in morgues - police have a high level nexus with automen - actual number of autos licensed and those actually running vary - inter-state permits are being misused and manipulated - making the autos paint green is a foolish attempt in the name of clean energy management - even electronic meters can be tampered with and there is no accountability - any number of complaints are being taken by the authorities for granted and less said the better about the Association of automen that cannot enforce a sense of transparency and accountability and public relation and other niceties.
Bottom line: Automen are fleecing gullible people with their highly tampered meter - 30 to 40 per cent (in Mysore it is about 50 per cent), harassing auto users with unruly and threatening irrational behavior, indulge in looting lonely female passengers and elders, the list is long.
Why make laws that cannot be enforced? Is anybody listening?
Vasanth Mysoremath
Authorities has to get strict about this otherwise it will go on
Its not first time this topic got raised on PRAJA, many times, praja folks have debated that within themselves, someone for the automen and someone against automen. But I don't think we ever reached the conclusion. The problem is something else always about auto and our debate always reached somewhere else loosing sense always. The need of the hour is that we really really need a strict authority to -
(1) Make sure that automen go to wherever citizens asks, they should.
(2) No meter should be tampered, better if every auto move to digital meter and government have to subsidize it in the interest of citizens because this way auto-union will not have any reason not to install new electronic meters for the good of common public.
(3) There shouldn't be any compulsion about the color, I mean there are autos which are relatively environment friendly and government is trying to make the cost more, why would one get incentised towards good moves.
(4) There should be strict checking about the automen asking for more fare than shown in the meter or not going by the meter, or asking 10-20 or 1 and half more, may be autorities (policemen) can do that work in civil dress.
Bottomline is that Government has to make policies such that automen should be fearing of authorities and common public can commute comforably.
I also understand the plight of the automen, but this is not the way they keep their demands. One's good cannot be done by creating havoc for the normal public, by let automen harrassing normal public.