PUNE: The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has expressed concerns over the operation of bike taxis in the city and requested police to act against operators of such two-wheelers and ensure that the issue does not snowball into a major law and order problem.
Hundreds of autorickshaw drivers on Monday staged an agitation in front of the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) against the bike taxi services. They also threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the bike taxi services were not completely stopped.
The Bund Garden police had on Sunday registered a case against the president of an autorickshaw union and 190 members of it for staging an agitation without necessary permission at the RTO Chowk and blocking the Raja Bahadur Mill Road for almost three hours the day before.
An RTO official told TOI that at the RTA meeting on February 10, the Pune collector had requested the police to stop bike taxi services. The collector heads the RTA.
“RTO inspectors have so far been clamping down on the bike taxi operators. Since the drive began earlier this month, over 275 bike taxis have been confiscated. The RTA has now sought police’s help towards enforcement of the laws and interception of the member partners of various applications providing the bike taxi services,” an RTO official told TOI.
A member of the autorickshaw union that led the agitation on February 12, told TOI, “Our demonstration was peaceful and the intention was to draw the authorities’ attention towards the issue. Our members had not hindered vehicular movement.”
The Bund Garden police registered a case under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 336 (whoever does any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code against the agitators, on the basis of a complaint lodged by assistant inspector Harish Thakur.
Senior police inspector Pratap Mankar of Bund Garden police station told TOI, “The autorickshaw union concerned had not taken any permission from the police to stage the protest. They gathered in large numbers and blocked the road, which has hospitals on it.”
Autorickshaw union leaders said the agitation would continue until the authorities shut the bike taxi services.
Srikant Acharya, president of the Aam Aadmi Rickshaw Chalak Sanghatna, said, “The bike taxi services are illegal and our business is getting affected.”
An autorickshaw driver said, “We have submitted a memorandum to the RTO. If the situation does not change, we cannot rule out the possibility of going on a strike.”
