AHMEDNAGAR, Oct 1: The deputy Regional Transport Office (RTO) and the city police traffic branch have once again initiated steps to introduce meters for the autorickshaws in the city.The decision to introduce auto meters was taken after the recent meeting of the district cell for consumer protection. At the meeting, many members had raised the issue of exploitation and harassment of commuters by the auto operators. The members had complained that the auto drivers demand excess fares from the commuters and that the authorities did not take any action against them although many complaints were lodged in this connection.The RTO officials had assured the members to fix the autorickshaw fares and accordingly, the RTO has started a survey of all routes in the city. The office is studying what will be the fares from the old bus stand to Tarakpur, Sawedi, Appu Chowk, Professor Colony and other important locations in the city. A RTO official and an officials of the city police traffic branch have been especially deputed to travel in autorickshaw with a meter to study the possible fares.However this is not the first time that the authorities have initiated steps to fix fares of autorickshaw travel. Similar action was earlier taken in 1995 and 1996 and both times, the move had failed.Even after the fixing of auto fares, there is no guarantee that the auto operators will abide by the rules. The auto operators however argue that the commuters themselves, especially those from the rural areas, prefer not to pay by the meters, these commuters like to fix the rates first and then board the auto. Some of the members of the consumer protection cell are however insisting that the authorities should make it mandatory for the auto operators to charge the fares as per the meters. The exploitation and harassment of the auto commuters will not end unless auto fares are fixed, these members argue.Whenever the auto fares are fixed and the RTO and traffic police start initiating action against the erring auto operators, the latter resort to a strike. One and half years ago when the RTO had taken stringent action in this connection, the automen had refused to ply the vehicles. During the compromise arrived at on the occasion, one of the terms of settlement was that the auto operators will charge the fares as per the meters. However the auto operators had conveniently forgotten this and the authorities had also not followed the matter further. As a result, the autos in the city have continued to ply without meters.The next meeting of the consumer protection cell will be convened soon. The new fixed fares on various routes will be announced at this meeting, and perhaps boards will also be displayed at various locations to announce the fares. Nonetheless it is doubtful whether the auto operators will ever implement the fixed fares.Last year during the 70th all India Marathi literary meet, the district collector had appealed to automen to charge the fares to the visiting writers and poets as per meters. The auto operators had responded well to the collector's appeal and no complaint of exploitation or harassment was received from the visitors. If automen could charge the fares as per the meters during the literary meet, then why the same system cannot be introduced on a permanent basis, this is the question posed by many members of the consumer protection cell.
