Curbs soon on autos

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In an effort to curb the increasing lawlessness of autorickshaw drivers in the city, the corporation in coordination with the police and various other agencies, is planning to launch rigorous measures.

As part of the move, the civic body will ask the Regional Transport Authority to limit the number of autorickshaws with city permit to 7,000.

A meeting of the Traffic Regulatory Committee (TRC) held at the corporation office here on Monday decided to conduct a survey to take stock of the number of autos with city permits. Though the Authority had issued 4,000 city permits till 2004, there are only 2,500 autorickshaws with city permits now.

While issuing city permits, top priority will be given to city residents who have autos, said mayor Tony Chammany, who chaired the meeting. Women, and those from SC/ST categories, ex-servicemen and physically disabled persons will also be given priority. All applications will be verified by police authorities and no one with a criminal background will be issued a city permit.

The Authority will start issuing permits from August 15. “Once the city permits are issued, meters will be made mandatory in all autorickshaws and the passengers need to pay only the meter charge. A consensus was reached on this proposal during the meeting,” the mayor added.

Autos which violate norms will have their permits cancelled. There will be a permanent monitoring committee to check whether autos are complying with the norms.

It was also decided at the meeting that trade unions would not be allowed to set up their own auto stands. Once the number of autostands is fixed, all of them will come under the ownership of the corporation. All autos with city permits can park at any of these stands and can carry passengers.

Meanwhile, the TRC meeting put off the final decision on limiting the number of auto stands in the city. Another meeting will be held on July 24 which will take a final call on the number of auto stands.
Deputy mayor B. Bhadra, Regional Transport Officer T.J. Thomas, Assistant Commissioners (Traffic), officials from the Public Works Department, Legal Metrology Department and representatives of trade unions attended the meeting.