Kolkata: Rickshaw menace plagues alleys of Dhakuria, Selimpur

By: Meghna Das
KOLKATA: A Facebook post by Purna Das Baul, the Padmashree folk singer who lives in Dhakuria, has brought to light a menace that ails thousands of residents living in Dhakuria and Selimpur Pally in South Kolkata — rowdy rickshaw pullers who often block the narrow lanes and park their three-wheelers at will causing trouble to motorists and pedestrians.
On Friday evening, the 86-year-old singer was going out for a dinner with his family in their car when a rickshaw coming from the opposite side blocked Maharaja Thakur Road. On being asked to give way, the rickshawpuller allegedly called a few others from the locality and threatened and abused the veteran singer and his family.

“I had never felt so humiliated and scared. One of them had even took out an iron rod and tried to beat my son and grandson when they had protested against the abuses being hurled towards me. I am feeling extremely scared for my family after the incident and will plead with the authorities concerned to look into the matter,” Das wrote in his Facebook post. He had also made a written complaint about the matter with the Lake police station.

However, the incident canned open the fact that almost every car owner and resident living in the area are regularly bullied by rickshawpullers who damage moving vehicles and create trouble for pedestrians at will.
“At times I feel that I have committed a mistake by living here. Every time I step out of my house, I see the adjoining lane blocked by a rickshaw or two. These lanes are busy anyway and have moderate to heavy traffic flow. The problem is sometimes so severe that not even an ambulance can access these lanes hassle-free. We are very worried,” said Anirban Roy, a resident of Maharaja Thakur Road.
The residents alleged that the scenario is worse on weekdays between 6pm and 8pm. “The problem with rickshawpullers is that they refuse to back off under any circumstances and start abusing the motorists as if it is our fault that we live in the area and own a car. The four-wheelers are forced to back off and make way for them. All these cause a lot of confusion and increase traffic snarls in the area,” said Sri Kumar Roy, a businessman living in the area for the past three decades.
The problem gets worse with people from other areas visiting places like Dakshinapan. They also park their vehicles in the narrow lanes and alleys causing further trouble to the residents.
However, the residents said that rickshawpullers are the real menace. “If we face any inconvenience for them and object to it, they become violent. To be hon-est, we are scared of walk-ing on the streets because of the rickshaws,” said Shyamal Krishna Roy, a retired KMC official.
The rickshawpullers, however, refuted to have ever abused or heckled locals.
“These lanes are really very busy. The things turn worse during school and office hours. We have a total of 90 rickshaws that ply on these lanes and on any day, hardly 20 can be found operational. Actually, we save the day for motorists and residents during snarls by clearing the mess and restoring normal traffic. There is no intervention by traffic police. The owners of four-wheelers and two-wheelers often shout at us even when they are responsible for snarls,” said Kartick Debnath, president of Maharaja Thakur Road Rickshaw Chalok Samity.