Three wheels confuse cops

Confusion, therefore, is the reigning discipline so far as the plying of six-seater diesel rickshaws within the city limits goes.

“As far as I know, there is no provision in the Motor Vehicle Act that does not allow the rickshaws to ply in the city”, says A M Bhoj, assistant RTO at Surat, adding that the RTO placed the three-seater and six-seater rickshaws in the same category, the only difference being the fares they could charge outside municipality limits.

The city police, meanwhile, are trying to find their feet on the issue. “I have written to the RTO, seeking to know their stand and am awaiting a reply. The matter is entirely in the RTO’s jurisdiction and we can do something only after they make their position clear”, says Additional Police Commissioner P C Thakur, adding that he wrote the letter after at least six of the 15 rickshaw unions here — including the Shakti Autorickshaw Sangh, the Sahakar Auto Rickshaw Sangh and the Surat City Auto Rickshaw Sangh — complained that diesel rickshaws were not supposed to ply within city limits.

For the three-seater rickshaws, the six-seater big brothers are an unwanted intrusion in an overcrowded market. The six-seaters offer advantages both in terms of seating and fuel costs.

President of the Sahakar Auto-rickshaw Sangh Ghulam Memon alleges, “The six-seaters can ply only out of the city limits. They are ruining our business and are getting away with it as they are greasing the palms of both the traffic police and the RTO authorities.”

Jashubhai Barot, president of Shakti Autorickshaw Sangh questions, “How can they operate from the Chowk, the heart of the city, without the knowledge of the authorities?”

Curiously enough, the six-seaters ply only between the bus stand at the Old Civil Hospital at Chowk and Dumas and its surrounding areas of Bhimpore, Sultanabad, Magdalla, Abhva and other places outside the SMC limits. The flat rate for any destination from Chowk is Rs 5 — plying-by-the-meter simply doesn’t exist in the city — according to some drivers of such rickshaws.

Thirty-odd six-seaters ply the route daily. Says Harshad Shankar, one such auto-rickshaw driver, “We have licences for both the city and the rural areas and although we start from Chowk, we are all bound for areas outside the city limits. Moreover, we charge a nominal Rs 5 and guarantee a seat, while buses charge Rs 4.”

While the auto-rickshawdrivers have made up their minds about where they stand, the authorities are yet to do so.

And so the moot question on whether the six-seaters are allowed in the city remains unanswered.