Journalism of Courage
With an addition of 372 stands,Pune will soon have 922 autorickshaw stands,eight of which would be on Laxmi Road. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manoj Patil passed an order to this effect on August 30.
We found that 550 out of 656 old autorickshaw stands were properly located. At a joint meeting of officers from traffic police,RTO and PMC,a decision was taken to conduct a survey for finalising the spots for old and new auto stands in the city. The traffic police conducted a survey of the old 656 auto stands and also the 567 spots that were proposed by autorickshaw federations, he said.
Patil said they found that autorickshaw stands could be started at 372 spots. A final order or legal notification in this regard has been issued an is uploaded on website – http://www.punepolice.gov.in. The autorickshaw federation can download the order from the website, Patil said.
The DCP said the police had submitted the details of autorickshaw stands to the regional transport authority (RTA),the municipal corporations and the cantonment board requesting their authorities to install information boards about it at appropriate spots for the public.
Baba Shinde,president of Pune City Autorickshaw Federation said,There are about 45,000 autos in the city. But the number of autorickshaw stands was only 656. So there was one stand against 70 autos. Ideally there should be one stand for 20 to 25 autorickshaws.
Patil further said the traffic control branch would be launching a drive against autorickshaws without meters. There are several complaints from citizens that auto drivers charge more money than the tariff. Stern action will be taken against auto drivers cheating people, he said.
