Autorickshaw drivers seem to be the most common violators of traffic rules in the city along with motorcyclists. About 27 per cent of the total number of cases booked by the traffic police from 2009 to July 2012, under the Motor Vehicles Act, was against autorickshaws. Until July, the traffic police had collected fines amounting to Rs 2.8 crore. In 2011, the fine paid by them was about Rs 4.2 crore. The traffic police, in a post on Facebook, said, “Everyday most auto drivers pay fines but are not willing to obey the law.”
Nearly 13.88 lakh cases have been booked against autorickshaw drivers between 2009 to July 2012 while 11.69 lakh cases were booked against motorcyclists. The police says that they go soft on auto drivers because of their poor income. Andhra Pradesh Auto Drivers Samaikhya general secretary A. Sathi Reddy defended auto-drivers saying that most of the cases booked against the drivers were connected to illegal parking and driving without license.
“We stop somewhere for a minute to drop a passenger and a constable books a complaint and sends an e-challan. There is a one-year gap between the issue of preliminary and permanent license and they book the driver if he drives the with a temporary license. What should an auto-driver do in the one year period? How can he live?” said Sathi Reddy. While auto drivers, blame the lack of parking places, the traffic police, on the other hand, say a huge number of cases are related to demanding more fares or refusal to ply.
ACP (Traffic) C.V. Anand, however, says the number of auto drivers without license would be around 60-70 per cent. “To obtain a license, it is mandatory for the driver to have passed VIII standard. But most of them haven’t and if we start cracking down, they start protesting. They don't care for rules, and are not even aware of the MV Act,” he says. About those who claim that e-challans are false, he says, “If you take the ratio of e-challans to the number of autorickshaws in the city, it will be about 3-4 e-challans per auto,” he points.