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Auto, taxi drivers fleece stranded passengers

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State transport minister Diwakar Raote has taken a serious note of autorickshaw and taxi drivers charging passengers exorbitantly after local railway services collapsed on account of the rampage in Diva station.

He has received many complains in this regard from common people as well as those in authority. The minister now wants the police to take action against the errant auto and taxi drivers.

Raote said: "I will visit Diva to study the issue, and have asked the police department to lodge FIR against autorickshaw and taxi drivers who overcharged passengers. In situations like the one that prevailed in Diva on Friday, auto and taxi drivers should have come forward to help the stranded passengers."

On Friday, taxi and auto drivers took undue advantage of the situation arising out of Central Railway's local service being disrupted due to some technical failure. As there were no trains available, passengers had no choice but to explore other modes of transportation to reach their homes, offices, etc.

Auto and taxi drivers considered this a golden opportunity to fleece passengers. Auto drivers are said to have charged Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 to take people from Diva to Thane. The normal charge from Diva to Thane by auto is Rs 100-110. If you travel by share-auto, you will have to pay only Rs 50.

It was mostly women passengers who were at the receiving end. As they didn't have many options, many of them chose to travel by autorickshaws by sharing the fare among themselves.

Smita Devrukhkar, a woman passenger from Thane, said: "When some of us approached an auto to go to Thane from Diva, the driver demanded Rs 700, but when he realised that we would be sharing the fare, he immediately demanded that we pay Rs 1,000. We were shocked, but had no option and so paid him Rs 1,000."

Trupti Temkar, another passenger who had taken an auto from Thane of Friday, said: "It's a shame that auto drivers overcharged passengers taking advantage of the situation. We don't say they should have taken us for free. However, they shouldn't have overcharged passengers."

BEST to the rescue
BEST however did a good job by coming to the rescue of stranded passengers. The transport entity operated additional bus services to cater to the demand of passengers.

Hanumant Gophane, PRO, BEST, said: "BEST administration operated 60 additional bus services on 19 routes from 12.30pm onwards to help affected passengers. The additional buses were operated till Central Railway resumed services in the evening. These buses were pressed into service on route number 5, 30, 59, 85, 356, 385, 399, 501 and 521."

Gophane added: "We also deployed traffic officers and supervisors at important bus stations and places which were crowded to help people board buses. They helped passengers by making known availability of buses and approximate time of arrival, etc. Traffic officers kept monitoring bus movements through wireless sets and kept passengers updated on arrivals. This proved to be a great relief for passengers."

"The state administration operated around 60 extra buses to help stranded passengers. When we came to know about train services being disrupted, our department instructed heads of various municipal corporations who operate transport services in their respective areas to provide extra buses to ferry passengers," said Raote.

Transport commissioner Mahesh Zagade was unavailable for comment. His PA said he was away in Pune.

A senior official in transport department said: "If passengers who had been overcharged come forward and file written complaints or post letters on our website, we will take action as per RTO rule. Auto and taxi drivers cannot charge as they please. We will look into this and initiate appropriate action against errant drivers."

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