Besides penalty, errant drivers will be sent show-cause notices and reported to their unions.
If you’re one of those many Mumbaikars who have to fume and fret while scouting for a taxi or an autorickshaw, here’s some good news for you. The Mumbai traffic police authorities have started taking stringent measures to bring about a change where it comes to autorickshaw or taxi drivers who refuse to ply.
Considering that the menace of cabbies and autorickshaw drivers refusing to ply has been witnessing a spurt in recent times, the traffic police are quite determined to transform the metropolis into a London, Sydney, Tokyo and New York at least where its public transport – like taxis and autorickshaws – is concerned.
Over the past couple of months, September and October, the traffic police have penalised more than 5,000 errant taxi and rickshaw drivers for refusal to ply. Between January and October 31 this year, the traffic police have penalised a 8,000 drivers for refusal to ply.
While cabbies are made to pay Rs200, autorickshaw drivers have to shell out Rs100 if caught by the traffic police for refusing to ply a passenger.
The police are aware of the fact that imposing penalties does not really make errant drivers change their ways and so they will now start preparing a list of such drivers and sending it to the transport commissioner who will issue them a show-cause notice. The licences of those who
fail to explain the reason they refused to ply will be impounded for 10 days. Besides, those who are found to be repeat offenders could also face permanent suspension of driving licences.
Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Pratap Dighavkar said that in cities like London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney, there is not a single case of a cabbie refusing to ply a passenger. “We intend to make Mumbai a city like one of these. We can easily meet those standards and for that we will be continue this drive till December,” he said.
Dighavkar said he would also write to taxi and rickshaw unions to explain to the drivers that they should not refuse to ply as it causes inconvenience to people and also creates a bad impression on those who come visiting the city.
“We keep a close watch during peak hours, especially near stations where taxi and rickshaw drivers turn passengers away. They do not bother even if the passenger is a senior citizen or woman. This will stop soon. Within a few months the change will be seen,” said Dighavkar added.
6,090 the number of taxi and autorickshaw drivers penalised between August and October this year
8,000 the total number of taxi and autorickshaw drivers penalised between January and October this year
Showing taximen the way
The traffic police say they want to put an end to the menace of taxi and autorickshaw drivers refusing to ply. For this, a slew of measures has been lined up. Besides imposing penalties, they will list of such drivers and the transport department will issue show-cause notices to drivers concerned. The whole idea of this exericse is to change things along the lines of international cities where refusal to ply by cabbies is non-existent
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