Were you a part of the effort?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
More help
Not many noticed the teenager in uniform, satchel on back, looking tense and worried as she hailed auto after auto, on the main road in Koramangala. None agreed to ferry her to school. It was getting late, and she had an exam to write.
After checking with about six autos, Roopa (name changed) panicked and collapsed. Luckily, a passer-by came to her rescue and offered to drop her to school.
Eyewitness Capt S Ramakrishnan said: “At 9 am on Wednesday, I was waiting near Maharaja restaurant. I saw this schoolgirl checking with one auto after another. All refused. After a few minutes, she collapsed. When she regained consciousness, she said she was getting late for an exam. Luckily, a lady offered to drop her to school.”
Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao said auto permit will be cancelled if the driver refuses to ferry passengers. Bangalore’s autodrivers revel in turning away passengers, and after a series of refusals, Roopa, a school girl, fainted on the busy Koramangala road on Wednesday morning.
When asked, president of Adarsha Auto and Taxi Drivers’ Union M Manjunath admitted that around 25% of auto drivers flatly refuse to ferry passengers. “One of the reasons could be that they may not have proper documents and are afraid to go to certain parts of the city,” he said.
Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao sought help from the public. “As there are 85,000 autos in Bangalore, it’s difficult to take action against the drivers if proper details are not provided. We request people to take note of the auto numbers and send them to us,” he said.
WHERE TO COMPLAIN
Phone: 22254900
e-mail id: transcom@nic.in
Address: Transport Commissioner’s Office, Gate 1, 5th floor, M S Building, Dr Ambedkar Road, Bangalore
Source - Time of India, Bangalore Edition, 18th March, 2010.
I just hope this not one of those many helpline numbers that are either never answered or people never bother to call. But I have decided I want to be more positive about this.
After checking with about six autos, Roopa (name changed) panicked and collapsed. Luckily, a passer-by came to her rescue and offered to drop her to school.
Eyewitness Capt S Ramakrishnan said: “At 9 am on Wednesday, I was waiting near Maharaja restaurant. I saw this schoolgirl checking with one auto after another. All refused. After a few minutes, she collapsed. When she regained consciousness, she said she was getting late for an exam. Luckily, a lady offered to drop her to school.”
Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao said auto permit will be cancelled if the driver refuses to ferry passengers. Bangalore’s autodrivers revel in turning away passengers, and after a series of refusals, Roopa, a school girl, fainted on the busy Koramangala road on Wednesday morning.
When asked, president of Adarsha Auto and Taxi Drivers’ Union M Manjunath admitted that around 25% of auto drivers flatly refuse to ferry passengers. “One of the reasons could be that they may not have proper documents and are afraid to go to certain parts of the city,” he said.
Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao sought help from the public. “As there are 85,000 autos in Bangalore, it’s difficult to take action against the drivers if proper details are not provided. We request people to take note of the auto numbers and send them to us,” he said.
WHERE TO COMPLAIN
Phone: 22254900
e-mail id: transcom@nic.in
Address: Transport Commissioner’s Office, Gate 1, 5th floor, M S Building, Dr Ambedkar Road, Bangalore
Source - Time of India, Bangalore Edition, 18th March, 2010.
I just hope this not one of those many helpline numbers that are either never answered or people never bother to call. But I have decided I want to be more positive about this.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The "Somewhere" Start
Bad roads, traffic, mean auto wallahs, selfish government... There really is no end to my (our?) woes. So what do we do? Dismiss it as something one needs to get used to in our day and age? That does sound like the best thing to do, but why give up when you can do a little something about it? I am beginning to get used to a lot of things, but I still want to do my bit.
So starting off with a post about the auto drivers of Bangalore - they make a total of 60 minutes of my day absolutely miserable. They are rude, they are greedy... They border on being abusive. People say they are what they are because of the very unfair distribution of wealth. I don't understand that. Everyone's poorer than someone else. But that doesn't give me the right to be abusive. It doesn't give the auto drivers the right to intimidate people in better cars... Or play around with the meter. Or always, invariably try to take the longer route. Or never seem to know the way to the destination after committing. Or trying to make small talk when the passenger is absolutely NOT interested. I can of course choose to commute by car by giving up my absolutely irrational fear of driving, or I can take a bus. But autos are on the roads for a purpose. I pay them a lot of my hard earned money to take me places CONVENIENTLY, and I want to make sure that my reason to commute with them doesn't go to the dogs just because they are too stupid/ proud/ complexed to get it right.
I am making my start tomorrow, I am going to report every auto driver that misbehaves. Following numbers are of auto complaint cells set up by Bangalore police-
Bangalore Centre - Koramangala BDA complex - 25533525
Bangalore West - Rajajinagar Corporation Complex - 23324388
Bangalore East - Indiranagar BDA complex - 25253726
Bangalore North - Yeshwanthpur corporation Complex - 23376039
Bangalore South - Jayanagar Corporation Complex - 26630989
Alternatively you can email the authorities at transcom@kar.nic.in
Website: http://rto.kar.nic.in/help.htm
I am not sure how well this works, I haven't tried it yet. But I do know that auto drivers in Bangalore are very scared of the police. I got into a milder version of a street brawl over the route and meter with one of them last Friday. And when I pretended to call the police (Just Dial gave me incorrect numbers and I decided to buy time by making a fake call) and asked for his license number during the call, he pretended to look for it and then scampered off. So they are scared. The next time I am going to be sure I don't need to make a fake call.
I make my start tomorrow. How many of us can I count in?
So starting off with a post about the auto drivers of Bangalore - they make a total of 60 minutes of my day absolutely miserable. They are rude, they are greedy... They border on being abusive. People say they are what they are because of the very unfair distribution of wealth. I don't understand that. Everyone's poorer than someone else. But that doesn't give me the right to be abusive. It doesn't give the auto drivers the right to intimidate people in better cars... Or play around with the meter. Or always, invariably try to take the longer route. Or never seem to know the way to the destination after committing. Or trying to make small talk when the passenger is absolutely NOT interested. I can of course choose to commute by car by giving up my absolutely irrational fear of driving, or I can take a bus. But autos are on the roads for a purpose. I pay them a lot of my hard earned money to take me places CONVENIENTLY, and I want to make sure that my reason to commute with them doesn't go to the dogs just because they are too stupid/ proud/ complexed to get it right.
I am making my start tomorrow, I am going to report every auto driver that misbehaves. Following numbers are of auto complaint cells set up by Bangalore police-
Bangalore Centre - Koramangala BDA complex - 25533525
Bangalore West - Rajajinagar Corporation Complex - 23324388
Bangalore East - Indiranagar BDA complex - 25253726
Bangalore North - Yeshwanthpur corporation Complex - 23376039
Bangalore South - Jayanagar Corporation Complex - 26630989
Alternatively you can email the authorities at transcom@kar.nic.in
Website: http://rto.kar.nic.in/help.htm
I am not sure how well this works, I haven't tried it yet. But I do know that auto drivers in Bangalore are very scared of the police. I got into a milder version of a street brawl over the route and meter with one of them last Friday. And when I pretended to call the police (Just Dial gave me incorrect numbers and I decided to buy time by making a fake call) and asked for his license number during the call, he pretended to look for it and then scampered off. So they are scared. The next time I am going to be sure I don't need to make a fake call.
I make my start tomorrow. How many of us can I count in?
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