Delhi: Auto drivers ask police to ‘go soft’

The Delhi Auto-rickshaw Sangh took out a protest rally on Monday, demanding the police to go soft on violations by auto drivers. HT reports.

The Delhi Auto-rickshaw Sangh took out a protest rally on Monday, demanding the police to go soft on violations by auto drivers.

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They later submitted a charter of demands to special commissioner of police (traffic) Sudhir Yadav.

The demands included lighter punishment for norm violations, increase in auto fare and a fresh survey on the distance of localities for fixing fare charts for prepaid auto/taxi booths among others.

“For any violations such as refusal and overcharging, the traffic police issue us court challans and also impound our vehicles for 15 days.

"We have demanded that traffic police should not impound our vehicles as court imposes huge penalty on us, which is enough deterrent,” said Rajender Soni, a spokesperson for the Sangh.

He also said that auto-rickshaw drivers should be allowed to go home in the evening after eight hours of duty and refusal during such time should not be considered a violation.

The Sangh has also demanded immediate revision in auto fare structure or subsidy for CNG.

“The last fare revision took place in 2010 but since then CNG prices have gone up several times,” Soni said.

“The special commissioner (traffic) assured us that he would discuss our charter of demands with his officers. If our demands are not met, we will observe a token strike for two days on Sunday and Monday. If this also does not yield any results, we will go off roads everyday from 4pm, starting March 1,” he said.

Special Commissioner Yadav, however, was not available for comment.