Autorickshaw drivers go on strike over tiff with traffic cops,matter settled

According to the Dahod Town police,the incident took place on Saturday morning when one auto driver,Karimuddin Baig,was taking a passenger to the Dahod Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation bus depot.

In his statement to the police,Baig said the passenger was blind,and he was taking him inside the bus depot as there was no assistance available at the place.

Rakesh Prajapati,the secretary of the Dahod Autorickshaw Drivers’ Association,said: “The traffic police personnel,without knowing the situation,started beating up the driver who was in fact helping the blind passenger. The no-parking status inside the bus station has been in place for many years. But the policemen should have at least taken the situation into consideration.”

The police,on the other hand,said that as soon as a traffic policeman posted near the bus depot asked the autorickshaw driver to move out of the no-parking area,five other autorickshaw drivers came in and started creating problem.

“The bus depot is out of bounds for any autorickshaw and they know it very well,” said Inspector B G Bharwad.

He added: “They were errant autorickshaw drivers and threatened one of our men,which is why we detained them for some hours. But we released them later on Sunday. There is no complaint filed against them.”