Auto drivers demand tariff revision

Nagpur: Citing fuel price hike, autorickshaw drivers in the city have demanded revision of tariff, which has not been done since 2014.
The Vidarbha Autorickshaw Chalak Federation has submitted a memorandum to the regional transport office in city saying the present Rs14 fare for the first km and Rs11 for each subsequent km need to be revised owing to skyrocketing fuel prices.
Federation president Vilas Bhalekar and secretary Prince Ingle said auto drivers can charge Rs14 for the first km. The fare was fixed when petrol per litre was costing little over Rs70, and now it has crossed Rs110.
Deputy RTO Ravindra Bhuyar assured to look into the demand by convening a joint meeting with Consumer Forum and other organisations. As per rule, the RTO will prepare a proposal pertaining to the hike, which will be implemented only after cleared by regional transport authority chairman and district collector Vimala R.
Admitting that there is almost negligible presence of autorickshaw drivers who ply by the meter, Bhalekar put the blame on enforcement agencies like RTO and city traffic police. He also claimed that commuters in Nagpur too do not want to travel in autos plying by meter.
No one is enforcing the ply by meter rule because of the official-auto driver nexus, which also results in more than three passengers being ferried in one auto, he said.
“The federation has also demanded more number of auto parking stands across the city,” said Bhalekar.
From January 1 to November 28 this year, the Nagpur city traffic police have penalised 80 autorickshaw drivers for not plying by meter. Last year, during the same period, the cops had issued challans to 204 drivers.
In the past, both the enforcement agencies had conducted numerous drives to make auto drivers ply by meter. However, inconsistency in their efforts has led to all the drives turning out to be a damp squib.