Three seaters to go off roads

PUNE, Dec 8: Autorickshaws in the city will be off the roads on December 11 as the Rickshaw Panchayat has called for a one-day token stri...

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PUNE, Dec 8: Autorickshaws in the city will be off the roads on December 11 as the Rickshaw Panchayat has called for a one-day token strike to protest against the “paltry” hike in the passenger fares announced by the Transport Minister in Mumbai yesterday.

The Rickshaw Panchayat is also protesting the delay in the implementation of the ban on six-seater autorickshaws in the municipal limits, and has decided to launch a stiff agitation against the compulsion to install electronic meters. The Pune City Autorickshaw Federation has also condemned the government’s decision terming the hike as insignificant and incorrect.

Coordinator of the Rickshaw Panchayat, Nitin Pawar, charged that some of the decisions like the installation of electronic meters had been unilaterally announced by the State Government while the State-level action committee of autorickshaw drivers had been consistently opposing them. Pawar said while the exact structure of the hike in fares for Pune was not available, he added that the fare hike for Pune city was `paltry’.

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The panchayat in a statement said there was no hike in fares in Pune since July 4, 1996 although prices of petrol were hiked three times in the last two years. The fare structure, with the first slab for a distance of one kilometre and further slabs for distances of every hundred metres was first introduced in Pune on the Panchyat’s demand, the statement said. It added that the structure dislodged all doubts of meter tampering. The same slab structure is to be introduced in other cities, the statement said.

The panchayat has appealed to the rickshaw drivers to participate in a morcha beginning from the Rickhaw Panchayat office and end in a public meeting at City Post. The bandh will be observed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The appeal said the six-seaters were illegally transporting passengers and it had made difficult for the three-seater autorickshaws to get passengers while returning from long routes.