Not one complaint against autos in Bangalore

Commuters are cold-shouldering a campaign aimed at preventing autorickshaw drivers from fleecing passengers.
The campaign, initiated by an NGO and being run jointly with the transport department, is yet to get even a single complaint. However, the NGO, Kiirti, has been getting several complaints via e-mail.

The campaign has been designed to settle disputes with autodrivers immediately, and with commuters preferring to e-mail their complaints have been defeating the initiative.

“We receive loads of complaints e-mailed to us. We wanted to settle such issues on the spot and nab errant drivers. We have worked out a campaign with the transport department, but sadly, people are not cooperating,”  said Sudha Nair of Kiirti.
The transport department, meanwhile, has published the contact numbers of control rooms, where citizens can lodge complaints against errant drivers.

“We started the campaign on a trial basis to assess the response to it, and see how many complaints could be settled on the spot. But people find it convenient to e-mail us rather than call the control rooms,” said RV D’Souza, joint commissioner of transport (urban and rural).

The campaign is from December 6 to 18. D’Souza, however, added that tracing errant drivers was difficult because most of them were employed by the vehicle owners. The drivers either lived in temporary shelters in slums or sleep in parked autorickshaws.

The transport department has been registering only 10 autorickshaws a day to control the number of three-wheelers on city roads.