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Bike taxi riders shell out hefty fines in Pune
Since August 1, Pune RTO has started a drive against illegally running, app-based, auto-rickshaws and two-wheeler bike taxis
Sovaji Kamble, sole bread earner in the family, who owns a bike taxi, is a worried man, his two-wheeler was seized by the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) for illegally-running business.
“First, I was told to pay a fine of ₹500 and when I came to the RTO office, I was given a challan of ₹10,000. I hardly earn ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 per month and how can I pay such a huge amount to RTO? I have a family of five members and for the last four days I am daily visiting the RTO office to get back my bike,” said Kamble.
Since August 1, Pune RTO has started a drive against illegally running, app-based, auto-rickshaws and two-wheeler bike taxis.
Another bike-taxi owner Ram Singh, a 19-year-old student, who joined work last week said, “I am a student and for pocket money, I started working as a bike taxi driver, but within a few days I was caught by the RTO inspectors and now I have been handed over a challan of ₹13,000.”
“Rather than taking action against the company the RTO is taking action against us,” he said.
As per the information shared by the Pune RTO, there are many complaints against illegally running, app-based bike taxis and despite repeated warnings and action was taken earlier, these two-wheeler bike taxis are still operating across the city. Whereas there have been many complaints raised by auto-rickshaw unions against aggregator companies running such services and the bike-taxi riders.
“Daily our RTO inspectors are carrying out the drive to get hold of culprits. We had already sent notices to all the app-based aggregator companies. As legally the bike taxis are still not allowed in Maharashtra state and we are following the orders from the head office to carry out the drive,” said Ajit Shinde, Pune regional transport officer.
