KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the departments of motor vehicles and legal metrology to explore the feasibility of making it mandatory for autorickshaw drivers to display printed fare cards at a prominent place inside the vehicle. Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar also directed the police to ensure that a mechanism for rerouting the distress calls made by the public to emergency response system, including the women distress helpline and pink police, to the police control rooms in all districts so that police personnel could promptly reach the location of the caller. The court issued the directives while disposing of a writ petition filed by an NGO from Kannur.
According to the petitioner, the autorickshaws in Kannur and Thalassery were not operating the fare meters and were charging excess rates. Since such instances invariably happened at odd hours, the passengers often found themselves at the mercy of the autorickshaw drivers. The court also directed the police to take immediate steps to prominently display the emergency response numbers in public places including the vehicles. The court issued a directive to the Kannur District Police Chief to ensure that distress calls made by aggrieved members of the public, in the event of unreasonable fares charged by an autorickshaw driver, were rerouted to the control room.