The city traffic police have booked 1,000 cases against autorickshaw drivers for overcharging or refusing to ferry passengers, on the basis of complaints received through SMS, or the short message service sent on mobile phones by commuters. But all of it may come to nothing because the addresses of the autorickshaw drivers to which the notices are sent often prove to be incorrect!
In July last year, the Bengaluru traffic police launched the SMS autorickshaw complaint service to allow people to lodge complaints against auto drivers who overcharge or refuse to take fares. Since the department has filed about 1,576 complaints of refusal or overcharging by autorickshaws. Last year, in total in their were 4846 cases of refusal and overcharging that were filed, while there were 3075 cases in which the display cards were not found in the autorickshaws. The traffic department says on week days 15 to 20 complaints are received via SMS and this number crosses 30 on weekends. But when it comes to issuing notices based on the complaints, traffic cops find the addresses are wrong.
“We are taking action but at times we are not able to find the person at the address mentioned in the vehicle's registration. In many instances, the address provided in the registration does not match, and we don't know to whom to issue the notice," said an official from the traffic department. For example, a notice issued to an autorickshaw driver reached a senior citizen living in Jayanagar.
This highlights the chaos in the registration process and proves that display cards in the autorickshaws do not always give the correct address and hence are of no use in an emergency. “We have raised many violations, but sometimes due to issues such as change in address, the notices are returned. However, that doesn't mean that the driver is off the hook," said M.A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic). What this means is that when the driver commits an offence for which he is fined, the earlier fine notice information will show up on the officer's Blackberry and the driver will be fined for that as well, Mr Saleem explained.