A/C cabs? Prepare to be cheated in luxury!

Unless RTO changes its cowardly attitude, lying meters will spoil the most comfortable ride

Suddenly, a lot of new well-meaning ideas are streaming down Mumbai roads. Unhappily, the remedies that the ideas propose are as insubstantial a cure as stuffing potholes with sawdust. The question the authorities must ask is whether a medal-meshed uniform can make a coward an able general.

The Road Transport Office (RTO) has collaborated with a private fleet management firm to train taxi drivers to appreciate their responsibilities. And on Sunday, pink air-conditioned cabs, meant only for women, will be launched from the Priyadarshini Park Sports Complex.

The first initiative aspires to help drivers understand what their job involves, including safe driving, serving their customers, and responding to emergencies. The second will usher the era of commercial women drivers.

Now, we all know that basic public transport has always been an organic part of India’s modern metros. For years, taxis or autos, or both, have augmented government-run bus services in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and Chennai. And for just as long, with each journey, lying and cheating meters have added to the licentious list of bitter complaints and commuter acidity.

So when the RTO teaches drivers to smile and hold doors open for their customers, people’s despair will plunge into the darkest recesses of resignation. The cheats will not just continue to deceive, but they will do so with a smile!
Clearly, the RTO must recognise that change in service cannot be accomplished without a change in the attitudes. And unless RTO changes its pusillanimous position and implements the installation of electronic meters, people are going to be robbed. It will be no consolation that the rip-off occurs in air-conditioned environment.

In August this year, Maharashtra issued a notification to introduce electronic meters to 55,000 cabs and 1.10 lakh auto rickshaws in Mumbai. The sense of urgency suggested that the long-pending decision, stalled for years by belligerent taxi and auto rickshaw unions, will come into effect in mere weeks. But although Christmas is nearly upon us, most of us are still playing reluctant Santa Clauses to taxi and auto rickshaw drivers.

As for exclusive taxis for women, the excellent idea, even if it addresses the worry about safety, does not offer the cure called ethical metering.

Will women feel mollified just because the con job stays within their gender line?

In the end, any sensitisation exercise meant for commercial drivers cannot be adequate if they are not shoe-horned into the system of the prevailing law. The police are inflexible in curbing drunken driving, but I haven’t heard of too many instances of swindling drivers being punished for being high on impunity.

Taxi and auto rickshaw drivers, for their part, abuse traffic policemen for extorting haftas and use that perversion of the law as moral excuse for unilaterally adding a gratuity to the fare.

Where does that leave us? I suppose we must just enjoy being taken for a ride; that might diminish the feeling of helplessness!

—Email:raghu@dnaindia.net