Pune Citizens suffer, drivers take them for a ride

How often have you felt harassed by an autorickshaw driver, who refuses to ply by meter, demands extra money to go to certain areas, or simply refuses to ply short distances?

While prominent social worker and Rickshaw Panchayat leader, Baba Adhav, said that this problem is not widespread, the experience of the common man tells a different story.

Almost everyone from any part of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, who takes an autorickshaw regularly, has a bad experience to relate.

Autorickshaw drivers are openly flouting the rules and getting into arguments with passengers due to lack of firm action by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) or autorickshaw union leaders such as Adhav.

Even as Pune has expanded in all directions and the PMPML bus service continues to remain pathetic, with a fleet of just 1,500 buses, a large number of citizens, including office-goers, women, senior citizens, tourists and others are forced to depend on the 64,000 autorickshaws in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

While the number of autorickshaw passengers is on the rise, statistics show that the RTO — which is supposed to act firmly against autorickshaw drivers to prevent public harassment — has not been very proactive.

According to Pune’s regional transport officer, Arun Yeola, 720 complaints were received between April and October, and action was taken against 381 autorickshaw drivers. On another account, a total of 397 driving licences of autorickshaw drivers were cancelled for various irregularities, he claimed.

On BT Kawade Road, Kadambari Lokhande, a student, complained to DNA, “I do not argue over the excess fare demanded, especially at night, as I feel unsafe. Many a times the autorickshaw drivers behave in a rowdy manner, and I simply pay whatever they charge.”

Fleecing and refusal to ply short distances are common complaints in areas such as Aundh, Aundh Road, Model Colony, Shivajinagar, Vimannagar, NIBM Road and many other localities, besides various parts of Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nigdi.

Pimpri-Chinchwad residents, coming to Pune railway station at midnight, often have to stay back till morning or pay between Rs500 and Rs1,000 for a ride, which should ideally cost them less than half of it even with night charges.

To understand the situation better, DNA reporters visited BT Kawade Road in Ghorpadi in south-east Pune, where most autorickshaw drivers either refused to ferry customers to certain areas or overcharged them.

The problem is compounded by poor connectivity in this area. Consequently, autorickshaw drivers have become arrogant and have been harassing the citizens by overcharging them for short distances and refusing to ferry them.

When DNA reporters asked an autorickshaw (MH12 QA3610) to ferry them from Kalyaninagar to Anant Talkies on BT Kawade Road, the driver said, “I will charge you Rs20 extra on whatever the meter reads.” 

When questioned, he said that he did not get passengers from there because of the share auto system in that area.
On the brighter side, the drivers did not refuse to go to busy locations like Kalyaninagar or Camp and charged by meter.

Bhanu Chandrashekhar, a resident of the same area said, “Many a times I have to pay one-and-a-half times the normal meter reading, as the drivers complain of not getting passengers while coming back. It is a headache, but what can we do? It is easy to get an autorickshaw, if you want to travel to busy areas like Camp, but they flatly refuse to ply long or short distances.”

Speaking to DNA, traffic police inspector Sanjay Karekar said that residents or commuters do not come forward with complaints against autorickshaw drivers. “We have our men stationed at Sopan Baug junction, but no one has approached them with any complaints,” he said.

Rickshaw Panchayat president Baba Adhav told DNA that autorickshaw drivers on BT Kawade Road in Ghorpadi are forced to charge extra as “they have to either wait for a long time to get a return passenger, or do not get one at all. Otherwise, there is no reason to charge extra, at least in this area.”