Metro feeder bus owners cry foul over Gramin Sewa autos

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

After the nine-seater Gramin Seva autos faced flak for plying without driving licenses, overcrowding and dangerous driving, the new complaint against them is plying on routes not assigned to them. The transport department had chalked out 66 routes on which the 5,060 permitted autos can ply. However, complaints poured in from West Enclave in Rani Bagh where these autos were seen plying between Rani Bagh and Britannia Chowk even though no Gramin Sewa Autos have been assigned this route.

Delhi Traffic Police received a complaint from drivers of DMRC feeder buses in the area on Monday evening that several of these Gramin Sewa Autos were plying unchecked in the area, thus taking away commuters the feeder buses cater to. "We deployed traffic personnel to check these claims and found eight such Gramin Sewa Autos plying in the area which have been booked for RC and permit violation and dangerous driving. Four more such autos were impounded on Tuesday morning, but it appears that word had spread following the prosecutions as no more such autos were seen in the area afterwards. If we receive similar complaints from other areas we will certainly take action immediately," said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Satyendra Garg.

Bijan Mukherjee, one of the complainants to the DTP in this regard, said, "We noted the number plates of 44 such autos that were plying on this route and presented them to the traffic cops. We had earlier approached senior traffic cops of our area who had claimed that these Gramin Sewa autos had applied for plying in this route to the transport department and the court, so they were not sure whether to prosecute them. We then decided to approach other senior officers. We will protest at Rohini court on Wednesday, when the auto drivers are supposed to appear in front of the court, as this route is strictly assigned to metro feeder buses. Last month, 70 such Gramin Sewa autos were made to leave the route between Shadipur and Inderpuri by traffic cops. Similar action should have been taken in our area but was not done."

The Sewa was aimed to cater to rural areas where the reach of DTC buses is limited. Accordingly, 66 such routes were chalked out by the transport department in the first week of March and each auto allotted a route. However, with the route assigned to the auto not displayed in the vehicle, it becomes difficult to check for route violations. "A system needs to be in place like the Blueline buses where the route assigned to the auto is displayed prominently. The transport department has uploaded the route numbers assigned to autos, but it is difficult to check route violations in this manner. We were not consulted regarding assigning of routes and the criterion for it," explained a senior traffic police officer.

Original news source http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-13/delhi/29413086_1_gramin-seva-auto-drivers-feeder-buses