The Delhi government plans to rid the Delhi University campus of both pollution and noise and will hold talks with the vice-chancellor to make the varsity vehicle-free. After handing over aesthetically designed 100 rickshaws to poor rickshawpullers in a function organised by Shri Ram College of Commerce, chief minister Sheila Dikshit said that her government would take up the matter with the vice-chancellor to make DU a vehicle-free zone soon.
The chief minister further said that rickshawpullers in Delhi are mostly rural migrants and are an exploited community.
“On an average, they pay almost 25 per cent of their daily income as rent for the rickshaw to contractor, possibly for the lifetime of activity, with no scope for ownership. On their own, rickshawpullers have no credit worthiness. Despite providing cost-effective and non-polluting transport, they lead lives of low and uncertain incomes,” she said.
The CM expressed confidence that under their project “Life on Wheels-let them own what they owe”, SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) at SRCC in collaboration with American India Foundation would provide rickshawpullers access to banking facilities to facilitate ownership of the rickshaw and to undertake allied activities to raise their standard of living.