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Ludhiana | AAP government not fulfilling pre-poll promises: Autorickshaw drivers
President of the association Satish Kumar said chief minister Bhagwant Mann, along with AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, had organised an ‘Auto Samvad’ and had dinner at an autodriver’s home in November last year wherein they had promised to resolve the problems being faced by autorickshaw drivers if voted to power in the state. But nothing has been done in the last six months, he added. MLA (Ludhiana West) Gurpreet Gogi said, “ The problems regarding challans will be resolved in collaboration with the traffic police and a camp will be organised to clear the pending challans”
Decrying the failure of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in fulfilling its pre-poll promises made by AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, District Auto Rickshaw Workers’ Federation submitted a memorandum with MLA (Ludhiana West) Gurpreet Gogi at his office in Ghumar Mandi on Tuesday.
Stating that even after six months of AAP-led government in the state, drivers said the party has not been able to fulfil its promises, including yellow line/parking area on roads, issuance of driving licences for autorickshaws, waiving off hefty fines imposed on the autorickshaw drivers in the past etc.
President of the association Satish Kumar said chief minister Bhagwant Mann, along with Arvind Kejriwal, had organised an ‘Auto Samvad’ and had dinner at an autodriver’s home in November last year wherein they had promised to resolve the problems being faced by autorickshaw drivers if voted to power in the state. But nothing has been done in the last six months, he added.
Representing around 12,000 autorickshaw drivers, Kumar said, “ No licenses are being issued to the three-wheeler drivers since 2017 and hefty challans are imposed on drivers by the traffic police. The government has not been paying heed to the issues.”
He said the previous Congress government imposed the conditions of permit and road tax on e-rickshaws and the official fees for registration of e-vehicles was also increased from ₹850 to ₹6,500 due to which the drivers were also not able to get their vehicles registered.
Demand autorickshaw stands, subsidies for switching to CNG
Autorickshaw drivers demanded that autorickshaw stands should be established near the railway station and bus stand and subsidies should be given to drivers who are switching from diesel vehicles to CNG.
An auto rickshaw driver, Balwinder, said that as no licenses were being issued against three-wheelers in Punjab due to which autodrivers could not get insurance claims against their vehicles too.
Listening to their woes, MLA Gogi said, “ The problems regarding challans will be resolved in collaboration with the traffic police and a camp will be organised to clear the pending challans. I have asked traffic police to be lenient until a policy is formed by the government.”
“ A meeting will be arranged between the delegation of autodrivers and the state transport commissioner in Chandigarh on September 22 to address the issue related to licenses and education requirements for autodrivers,” he added.
