To stop bullying, we need to stop bowing to bullies

Representative Image

It is autorickshaws taking commuters for a ride, metaphorically and literally, in our reports on how people are being forced to fork out huge sums as autorickshaws are literally holding them to ransom.

This, in a city, which most of all, prides itself in charging by the meter and making visitors, too, by and large, feel they were charged the right price. We do have tourists being fleeced but this is still a lot less than in many other cities.

Yet, now this happy story has been punctured by our reports that show rickshaws charging huge fares and meter fares can simply go out of the window.

The share-a-rickshaw scam, where each commuter is charged a ‘set' sum, so that the driver earns a tidy total at the end of the commute, has been highlighted many times. Then, autos are circling at destinations where people are most desperate to get to work or home. This is outside stations, crowded places, popular joints. Where there is vulnerability and some weakness, there are scamsters waiting to make the most of the situation.

From six in a rickshaw, careening madly and dangerously, to refusal to ply unless the commuter accedes to paying twice and thrice the amount, there is something rotten in the state of the rickshaws plying in this city.

It is useless telling hapless people that the cons are unlicensed rickshaws. People do not know how to check for licensed or unlicensed, illegal rickshaws.

It is up to the transport department to really prise the rot out from the root, instead of having drives that are merely band aid solutions to a festering and serious problem.

To burn a hole in people's pockets, to hold them to ransom, means a build-up of frustration and anger. A stop and no coming back approach is the way to do away with this altogether.