Coimbatore District Autorickshaw Workers Union meeting

A meeting of the Coimbatore District Autorickshaw Workers’ Union on Thursday resolved to urge the State Government to announce a meter fare for Coimbatore city with effect from March 1.Union secretary P.K. Sukumaran said the meeting was convened to discuss the situation in the light of the fuel price increase.Amid a general feeling that the union would demand that the Government factor in the cost increase, Mr. Sukumaran clarified that there was no plan to demand more than Rs.20 as the minimum fare for the first one-and-a-half km and Rs.10 for every subsequent km.(While the Government had fixed Rs.14 as the minimum fare last year, the unions here have demanded Rs.20 by stating that local conditions made Rs.14 non-viable.)

“But, the Government should realise that the cost rise demands a quick announcement of the fare. Otherwise, what we demand may not be rendered non-viable by this and any subsequent increase in the price of fuel,” he said.He pointed out that only a committee to arrive at the fare had been formed and that it had convened only one meeting for the unions and another for the public. Things had not progress beyond this.Mr. Sukumaran, who is also president of the Joint Action Committee of Coimbatore said the autorickshaw drivers would be forced to re-calibrate the meters and fix the fare at Rs.20 if the Government did not announce it by March 1.This proposal would be discussed with the other unions.

“We know that the Government will not allow us to fix the fare. But, it should see in our move the urgent need to announce the fare,” he said.Even as consumer welfare organisations and citizens’ groups call for the removal of autorickshaw stands, some drivers allege there is pressure on them to join this system.Drivers who claim they are not members of any union or stand in the city say they are not able to pick up passengers from the railway station of cinemas because of the presence of the stands that are affiliated to trade unions.One of the drivers even accuses traffic policemen of not being sympathetic to their plight. These drivers are not able to wait for passengers at parking spaces near the station, hospitals or cinemas.

These areas are already the fiefdom of the stands. Therefore, the non-unionised drivers are chased away.This situation forces the drivers to halt at places not meant for parking and run the risk of being pulled up by traffic policemen. A driver says he had been fined by a policeman for halting in front of a cinema on Bank Road.After dropping passengers at the railway station, some drivers try to pick up passengers from the cinema because they are prevented from doing so at the station.The driver claims that when he protested against being fined, a policeman had asked him to become a member of a stand if he wanted to avoid action and also get passengers.He says that this runs counter to a growing realisation that the stand system, and the fleecing that it promotes, has led to people shunning autorickshaws.Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S. Manoharan denies the charge by the driver. “We take action only if the parked autorickshaws are a hindrance to traffic. They can pick up passengers from wherever they want,” he said.

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