This is an archive article published on September 19, 2021
After minor’s rape in Pune, action taken against 527 autorickshaws plying illegally
The joint drive by the police and RTO was launched in the wake of the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped from the Pune railway station premises by an autorickshaw driver
On Monday night, two persons identified as Chidibere Nwosu (36) and Okoro Ifeanyichukwu (41) were arrested by the Pune police team. (File)
After drawing much flak for inaction against autorickshaws plying illegally in the city, the Pune city police and the Regional Transport Office have jointly rounded up 527 autorickshaws which flouted norms.
Regional Transport Officer Ajit Shinde said the action was taken at four places including Pune railway station area, Swargate, Shivajinagar and Baner. “We will soon cover other places in the city,” he said.
The drive comes in the wake of the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped from Pune railway station by an autorickshaw driver. Police have made 19 arrests in the case so far, of which many are autorickshaw drivers who did not possess the necessary documents for plying the vehicles.
Story continues below this ad
As many as 41 autorickshaws have been confiscated and fines imposed on 486 drivers over 10 days. “Most of the confiscations happened around the Pune railway station area. The drivers were found plying autos without insurance documents and fitness certificates. Some of them did not even have a licence,” RTO Inspector Abhijit Gaikwad told The Indian Express today.
“Violations include not carrying badges or pinning them on their pockets, not wearing khaki uniforms, not possessing licences, not having side bars on the right side of the vehicle, not displaying vehicle number behind the driver’s seat, lack of meter or tampered/malfunctioning meter,” said Gaikwad.
The fine amount ranged from Rs 200 for not wearing the uniform to Rs 2,300 for not possessing insurance documents. “As for permits, the autorickshaws have been given time till September 30 after which action will be taken against those who do not have permits,” Gaikwad said, adding that there are 72,000 autorickshaws in the city.
The teen rape victim was allegedly offered a lift by an autorickshaw driver who also promised to find her a place to stay. She was then taken to various places and raped over the next several hours by the man, his accomplices and others.
Story continues below this ad
Police Commissioner Amit Gupta said strict action will be taken against “criminal elements” masquerading as autorickshaw drivers and that short-term, medium term and long-term actions are being planned to prevent crime against women at railway stations and other locations.
The Commissioner said meetings have been held with stakeholders such as railway authorities, RTO and Pune Municipal Corporation officials to increase CCTV coverage in such places and arrange better lighting facilities, besides conducting regular patrolling.
Baba Kamble, president of Maharashtra Rickshaw Panchayat, said, “We have been consistently demanding action against illegal autorickshaws all over the city. We suspect that there are at least 1,000 autorickshaws plying illegally in the Pune station area. The police take action, but these are half-hearted measures. Strong steps are needed against such criminals as their illegal activities tarnish the image of autorickshaws drivers who work honestly.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
3 min read
