The visitors police in Bengaluru have slapped a tremendous of Rs 34 lakh on auto-rickshaw drivers within the metropolis within the final three years for allegedly charging extra fare from passengers, in line with knowledge offered by Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy within the Meeting.
Whereas tabling the report within the Meeting on March 18, Ramalinga Reddy mentioned the police recorded 6,952 complaints in opposition to the drivers from 2022 to 2024 for charging extra fares. In line with the info, the variety of such circumstances was 2,179 in 2022; it dipped to 1,599 in 2023, and virtually doubled to three,174 in 2024 — indicating a forty five per cent spike in such violations in three years.
Reddy additionally mentioned the transport division registered 50 circumstances in opposition to auto-rickshaw drivers for fleecing passengers in 2024-25 and picked up a tremendous of Rs 62,000 from the violators.
Instances have been additionally registered in opposition to auto-rickshaw drivers who refused to supply service upon requests from prospects. “We’ve registered 2,183 circumstances in 2022, 1,537 in 2023 and three,212 in 2024 in opposition to auto-rickshaw drivers who refused rides to prospects,” mentioned Reddy, including that circumstances have been registered underneath the Motor Automobiles Act.
Nevertheless, specialists really feel that with auto-rickshaws offering almost one million rides day by day, the regulation on overcharging and the difficulty of drivers refusing rides stays dormant.
Satya Arikutharam, an city mobility skilled, mentioned aside from auto-rickshaw drivers, even aggregator giants like Ola and Uber cost greater than the prescribed fare. “This occurs, regardless of submitting an enterprise to the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom that they’ll cost as per government-fixed charges. The abysmally low variety of crackdowns displays the federal government’s inaction and a whole breakdown of regulatory authorities,” Arikutharam mentioned.
In the meantime, Bengaluru auto-rickshaw drivers’ unions have demanded a fare hike, and requested the federal government to extend the bottom fare by Rs 10. With this revision, the bottom fare for the primary 2 km shall be Rs 40, whereas the cost for each subsequent kilometre shall be Rs 20.
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