Tuesday’s state government notification making electronic meters compulsory in autorickshaws comes after almost a decade of dithering and is thus rightly being hailed as a victory for commuters. The transport department took the decision following the rising number of complaints of tampering in the old mechanical meters.
But are the proposed e-meters completely fool-proof? Apparently not. It has been documented, including in reports in this newspaper, that they too can be tampered with.
This very reason has become a tool in the hands of the autorickshaw unions, who argue that if the new technology also is faulty, what is the point in making rickshaw owners spend more money on the electronic meters. They also argue that these meters will be prone to theft and are bound to be affected by the vagaries of weather in the door-less vehicles.
The approach of the unions is like throwing the baby with the bathwater. While a few of their concerns are justified to an extent, the right way to go about them is to voice them to the transport department, whose duty it is to address them. The solution does not lie in blindly opposing technology.
The unions have to remember that the technology shift will not just benefit commuters, but also the auto industry as a whole. At a larger level, the e-meters, with added accessories like GPS devices, can eventually help document auto trips, ridership, routes taken and fare collected, providing vital data for the city’s transport planners. The data can throw up significant light on traffic patterns and may end up changing the way we commute.
While it is true that no technology is 100% foolproof, there is no way we can enhance them if we don’t even give them a chance to begin with. Thus it is only right that the auto-rickshaw unions wholeheartedly embrace the new system.
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