Sapna Bhatia, 26, turned to Twitter to vent her desperation when she felt cheated and helpless on Monday morning.
An auto driver, who had refused to ply her from Kandivali to Goregaon, began abusing her, she said. And when she headed to the police chowki to complain against him, there wasn't a single official in there.
Sapna resides in Kandivali and works for an advertising firm at Goregaon. It is a daily ordeal for her to flag down an auto. Usually, it is not before 15-20 minutes that she finds an auto driver who agrees to ply her. "My daily struggle to find a rickshaw continued on Monday morning. After waiting for over 10 minutes, an auto stopped by and I sat in. When I said Goregaon, he refused the ride. I took him to the nearest police chowki, Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali (West). To my surprise the police chowki was completely empty at 10:30 am," tweeted Bhatia. She looked around for help but didn't find any. The rickshaw driver, fuming that she had dared to take him to the police chokwi, began abusing her.
'I tried looking out for some help, but there was no one around. Eventually I had to leave the auto and what I received in return was abuses from the driver. This is not an ideal day that one asks for, especially in a city like Mumbai. With an incident like this, I no longer feel safe in spite of having police chowkies in every nook of the city,' she said in a series of tweets.
Twitterati joined her in protesting the persistent refusals Mumbaikars face while hailing an auto. Many users tweeted how they also encounter unfair refusal during their daily commute.
One user wrote: 'Seriously... same amusement faced by me from an auto driver on Independence Day.'
'Very disappointing, even I feel the same. These auto guys are rowdies & unfortunately police have completely failed to curb them,' said another.
'I too have a similar problem while taking an auto from Santacruz East to go to Vakola. Share autos are lined up near the station. Autos keep refusing short distance fares and demand fare up to Kalina, even for going till Vakola," tweeted a third.
When DNA spoke with the the police, they promised to take action against the abusive auto driver.
Speaking with DNA, Senior Inspector Nitin Pondkule of Kandivali police station said, "We are checking CCTV cameras of the area and will take action against the auto driver for refusing fare and abusing this girl. The police chowki is open for 24 hours and is meant to help people in emergency. We will conduct an inquiry over police officers at Mahavir Nagar. There should be some officer present at all times."
Mumbai police tweeted at Bhatia stating that they had followed her and requested her contact details.
- DNA has started a campaign against auto refusals to ply called '(UN)FARE REFUSAL'. If you come across autos who refuse to ply you on your day to day journey kindly click a picture of the number plate and send it to us along with details on Mumbai Ka DNA number 7400211111. We here at DNA will follow it up with the traffic authorities.
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 "Sapna Bhatia")
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