12 May,2010 09:53 AM IST | | Team MiD DAY
18 drivers booked in three hours as autorickshaw campaign revisits railway station and Shankarshet Roadu00a0
It was Day 3 of Week 2 of the campaign launched by MiD DAY and Radio One along with the traffic police and the Regional Transportu00a0 Office. Due to the scorching heat, the crowd coming out of the Pune railway station was in a hurry to reach its destination. This was the second auto campaign at the railway station and it proved to be more effective, as greater number of auto drivers were booked.
u00a0The railway station has its own autorickshaw stand, but people were coming out on to the station road to look for autorickshaws.
ASI Mahadev Jagtap, Police Constable Arun Lokhande, Sunil Jadhav and S R Muthaiyya from the Bund Garden traffic branch were active throughout the campaign. ASI Jagtap also took action against rickshaw drivers who were not wearing the correct uniform or were not carrying their licence on them.
Here's what we found
Reporter: Vivek Sabnis
Place:u00a0 Shankarshet Road
Time: 2.30 PM-3 PM
Offenders booked: 3
Though the BRT bus route starts on this road, many commuters go to the nearby areas like Guruwar Peth or Shukrawar Peth area or the nearby Mahatma Phule Mandai (vegetable market place). The reporter tried to convince the auto drivers to go to these places.
As these places are nearby, the drivers blatantly refused and some of them even charged extra money between Rs 10 and Rs 20 by not using the meter. The auto drivers were also rude with the passengers who were coming from the village area.
Won't do IT again: An auto driver at Pune station asks for forgiveness after he was caught refusing fare to Tadiwala road
Reporters: Vivek Sabnis, Sonia Rodrigues and Abid Hasan
Place: Exitu00a0gate of Pune railway station
Time: 4.30 PM-6.30 PM
Offenders booked: 15
A middle-aged lady, Pushpa Dhanawane from Panvel, was looking for an auto to go to Vishrantwadi with her son. It was difficult for her, as many rickshaw drivers refused fare and some of them also asked for extra charge. She finally decided to go to the nearby PMPML bus stand as an alternate option. The Bund Garden traffic police team reached later and the reporters narrated the story. The other drivers in the vicinity became cautious when they saw the police in uniform.u00a0
The campaign got its real effect in the last 45 minutes, when 12 auto drivers were booked by the traffic police for refusal of fare and overcharging commuters. They refused to go to the nearby Tadiwala road.u00a0u00a0
The reporters were later mobbed by the rickshaw drivers, who were booked by the police, requesting them to take back the cases.
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Some Commentsu00a0
Rajiv Soni: Let us have the strength to form a group: Full Day's Fight against The Rude Politicians. Ahhh- but that we do not dare! So we pick on fighting those that are weaker than us.u00a0
Shweta Mehrotra: It is a daily routine for me to struggle and find a rick to the nearest station and these guys just don't budge.
