Govt plan of 10,000 autos hits roadblock

The Delhi government's poll promise to bring 10,000 autos to the national capital's roads has hit another roadblock. Now, the plan will take at least two months more, as the government's transport department is re-examining the over 20,000 applications it had received.

The department had invited applications in January earlier this year for which the initial deadline was February. It was the ruling AAP's pet project, as auto drivers had played a big role in bringing it to power.
However, according to officials, the conditions for issuing the permits were revised once again.

"Since there was a change in one of the clauses, we will have to do the scrutiny of applications again, which will take around two months. The process is already on. We have also sought this time from the Delhi High Court," said a senior government officer.

The plan has missed several deadlines since it was proposed in 2015 when the AAP came to power in Delhi. The recent deadline was July 31.

The matter has been in the Delhi High Court after 16 auto-rickshaw drivers approached court after they were given Letter Of Intents (LOIs) under the scheme but the government later cancelled these owing to alleged irregularities. LOIs were issued to 932 drivers for issue of fresh permits, of which 324 drivers had even bought new autorickshaws. However, for not having the permits, they could drive these autos till date.

The government had invited fresh applications in January keeping in view the municipal elections which were to be held in April.

Officials also said that the HC has also asked the department to pay Rs 12,500 monthly to all these petitioners who had bought the autos to earn their livelihood, if they fail to issue permits to them within two months.

"The process of scrutiny will be fast tracked this time," the official said. At present there are over 80,000 autorickshaws plying in the city. If these 10,000 autos hit the roads, that number will touch the cap of 1 lakh autos.

Analysis

The government must announce such schemes only after doing concrete work on it. In this case it has affected the livelihoods of over 300 auto-drivers and many more who were hoping for a decent income and had also taken loans for the same
Also, the government must have a mechanism to check irregularities in such cases so that its not delayed inordinately