IAC ignores campaign against errant auto drivers

The much-hyped campaign against errant auto-rickshaw drivers, which was kick-started by the city’s RTOs along with the Mumbai chapter of India Against Corruption (IAC), was put on the backburner this week. With activists busy trying to garner support for Anna Hazare’s fast, RTO officials have been busy preparing for the  statewide road safety campaign slated to take off in the first week of January.

In fact, far from being a real deterrent among sections of auto-rickshaw drivers who indulge in meter-tampering  and arbitrary fare refusals, the “campaign” left halfway seems to have only ensured that the RTO earn lakhs in fines from a few hundred drivers while civil society activists get additional publicity from a section of the media.

The eastern and western RTOs had collectively booked 615 drivers, of whom 416 have been prosecuted, with the amount collected in fines reaching a whopping Rs8,40,000. Now, with the campaign suspended, the number of complaints booked through the IAC’s SMS complaint system has crossed the 5,000-mark. An Andheri RTO official said, “Preparations for the road safety campaign and following-up of prosecution action on errant drivers is time-consuming.”

While admitting that the IAC was channelising all its energies towards promoting Anna’s struggle for a stronger Lokpal bill, an IAC activist said, “The campaign against errant drivers will be revived after this andolan is concluded.”