Pedestrian Woe’s
In this great juggernaut of development the most forgot person is the plebeian.
matter. first and foremost his royal highness refuses to ferry you to the destination. After a while some auto driver will be condescending enough to do so, but wait he decides the fare. It is usually one and half times what would show up in the meter.
The other day I wanted to go some place, I asked the people at the building where I stay about the fare, I was told no don’t take a rick, they’ll charge you around 200/- well due to circumstances I had to take the rick, I to driver “meter lagao” two auto men refused the third agreed and fare was 95/-Rs. we are resigned to paying 200/- we avoid taking the auto because we know it is overpriced but we do not stand up for our rights and ask for the meter.
This seems a pattern, people crib and complain but don’t really do anything constructive about it. The citizen’s forum at Hyderabad ran an invitation to the public about handling this here were some interesting suggestions.
- Designated Auto rickshaw bays at theatre’s, bus-stops, railway station, malls, prayer houses.
- Pre-paid auto facility, organized not by middle men or vendors but by the RTO.
- Autos without meter should be declared unauthorized. And unauthorized vehicles should not be allowed to ply.
- Based metering system the app. being released by the RTO.
- One stop helpline for auto users – how exactly this will function well I’m not sure.
- GPS based security – again how exactly it works I am not sure.
- Period education and upgrading of auto drivers. Those who do not go for this will be declared unauthorized.
Implementation of declaring someone unauthorized because he has not gone for a refresher does seem very improbable.
Frequent changes in the fuel hike effects the traveller. While the auto’s hike the price when the fuel prices hike they do not reduce it when it falls. Again each auto driver hikes on his pleasure.
Before we invite “foreign investor” and talk “development” we need to put our house in order. The house includes plebiscite, who is as much the citizen of the country as the person on who zooms by in the two or four wheeler.
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