Criticising the hurry the transport department has shown in issuing permits despite these two important cases pending, Kurien said rickshaw drivers were being held ransom in the move to gain political brownie points.
The Marathis-versus-outsiders debate in the issuance of autorickshaw permits that Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been harping on over the past few days has left both rickshaw drivers of all hues and unions bemused. This is because, according to them, the real problem doesn't have anything to do with the rickshaw drivers' mother tongues at all.
The devil in the details of the state's process of issuing rickshaw permits is that the state government has gone ahead and given out rickshaw permits with a rider. The rider states that in case there is an unfavourble verdict from either the Bombay High Court or the National Green Tribunal, Pune on two cases being heard over the issuance of these permits, the loss in investment would be entirely the permit winner's, which is of course left unsaid.
"In the letter of acceptance being given out by the transport department, clause 11 very clearly mentions this rider that the permit given is subject to the outcome of the HC and NGT cases. So in case something like this happens, the permit winner's investment of over Rs2 lakh, which includes buying a rickshaw for almost Rs1.7 lakh plus a permit of Rs16,000 and accessories worth some more thousands, would go down the drain. Moreover, the banks and cooperative credit societies giving out loans also seem to be unaware of this clause, which means that even these financial institutions will be left with off-the-road rickshaws which, at best, they can confiscate and park under various flyovers in the way that they do now," said Thampi Kurien, the chief of the Mumbai Rickshawmen's Union.
Criticising the hurry the transport department has shown in issuing permits despite these two important cases pending, Kurien said rickshaw drivers were being held ransom in the move to gain political brownie points.
"The state should have first won these cases and then gone ahead with the issuing of rickshaw permits. Moreover, with the speed at which the letters of acceptance for these permits are being given in the past couple of months, there is a serious danger of rickshaw sales falling prey to black-marketing due to a shortage of stock with the manufacturers," Kurien said.
Mumbai's metropolitan region, which includes neighbouring areas such as Thane and Navi Mumbai, is expected to get 36,528 rickshaw permits as per the rickshaw permit lottery that was held in January. With the transport department issuing the notification of new fees for the permits in mid-February and then asking the Regional Transport Offices to issue letters of acceptance to the winners by mid-March, the speed has been uncharacteristic.
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