GUWAHATI, Jan 2 � Voluntary organisation Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) has called for steps to eliminate all auto-rickshaw stands of the city.
Talking to this newspaper, SGBG general secretary Satyen Doloi alleged that the auto-rickshaw stands are standing on the way of legal operation of the auto-rickshaws in the city. These stands are making the auto-rickshaw operators coercive.
The auto-rickshaw operators are refusing to operate their vehicles on fare meters in an organised manner because of these stands. Since they are staying in groups, this provides them a tool to treat their passengers, who approach them individually, as vulnerable creatures.
Moreover, the auto-rickshaw operators are also facing problems from the stands. An auto-rickshaw operator from a stand is not allowed to pick up a passenger from an area falling under another stand, Doloi said.
He claimed that in the major cities of the country, auto-rickshaw operators are always on move and they do not have stands as their counterparts have in Guwahati.
Moreover, most of the city auto-rickshaws are operated not by their owners, but by the semi-educated persons, who are not entitled to operate an auto-rickshaw as per the Government�s policy for providing scopes to the educated unemployed persons for self-employment, he said.
Welcoming the administration�s decision to pursue the issue of fare meter rigorously, Doloi said that the common Guwahatians should also muster the courage to compel the errant auto-rickshaw operators to run on fare meters.
Those who refuse to run on fare meters should not be allowed to use the roads constructed at the cost of the taxpayers� money.
