CUTTACK: Faced with a High Court ordered clampdown on overloading of schoolchildren and imposition of the maximum three passenger restrictions, autorickshaws in the city today went on strike.
More than 3,000 autorickshaws stayed off roads and drivers staged a dharna in front of the office of the Director-General of Police to protest what they termed as harassment by police and transport officials in the name of executing the High Court orders. They submitted a memorandum to the DGP calling for a comprehensive discussion with the advocates Committee, police, Transport Department, parents and school authorities on the issue to find a solution to the problem.
The autorickshaw operators, however, have stuck to their opposition to the three plus one (including driver) norm saying that it would not be viable for plying within the city. Most of the vehicles are bought on loan and plying with three passengers only cannot give the bare minimum returns.
On the other hand the burden cannot be passed on to the parents or individual passengers. A common passenger will not be able to pay Rs 10 as minimum fare nor can a parent dole out Rs 1,000 as monthly school transport fees for his child, said Autorickshaw Association president Subash Singh.
They have demanded review of the passenger limit norms to allow eight in the autos of new model larger versions and five in the older models. But to major section of the denizens, this is not a solution as carrying so many passengers would amount to overloading.
A middle path has to be found, the denizens have stressed.
