Catering to a prominent and well-organised vote bank of the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed auto drivers at the 'Auto Samvad' in the national capital on Sunday. Kejriwal announced the AAP government’s decision to withdraw the traffic police's power to prosecute auto drivers for not wearing uniform, refusal to carry passengers etc. But the announcement which received the loudest cheer was the annual price hike in auto fares came at the end of the meeting.
Even though Kejriwal is busy addressing the issues of his vote bank, that is auto drivers, he is likely to face the allegation of neglecting the role of a chief minister and of being the representative of an 'Aam Aadmi' by siding with just a group of his supporters. While this auto samvad gave the freedom of refusing to carry passengers to the auto drivers, a shocking incident took place near Malviya Nagar metro station on May 15.
A daily commuter from Malviya Nagar metro station was allegedly beaten up by the auto drivers in front of cops and traffic police for asking the auto drivers to charge by the meter. The private auto drivers near the metro station reportedly ask for fare according to their will and refuse to travel by meter. The victim demanding anonymity says that all this has been happening since a long time now and the police don't even care.
The victim recalling the incident that happened on the evening of 15th May said, "When I was returning from office that day, I asked an auto driver to take me to Tikona Park area of Malviya Nagar and they asked me to wait until 3 more passenger board the auto for the sharing purpose. I refused to it and asked them to take me on a personal auto, to which they refused. They even refused to go by the meter."
Several complaints have been lodged by the victim on the traffic helpline number 011-42400400 and that day again, he called up to complain against the highhandedness of the auto drivers. After being denied the service, the victim went up to the traffic police patrol van standing nearby and asked them to intervene. He was shocked when the officials in the van said that they can't do anything and started to plead the auto drivers to drive him home.
"As soon as I started recording the whole incident and called up the police to intervene, the whole gang of auto wallahs started beating me up in front of the traffic police personnel. The police came after 25 minutes and stood there witnessing all the mess and took no action", the victim said.
When we went for a reality check to the same auto stand, we found that there was no change in situation even after an FIR was registered in the Malviya Nagar police station under the FIR number 962 on May 16 by the victim. Auto driers were still refusing to go by meter.
Local police inspector Lokender Singh said that the police are looking into the matter and investigation is under process. The police continue to say that the auto issue comes under the traffic police.
Seeing no action from any of the competent authorities, the victim handed over a written application to local AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, who promised to look into the matter. Bharti has refused to say anything about the issue on allegations of undue favour given by his government to the auto drivers.
While the police are taking too long to address the issue, the auto unions continue their 'gundaraaj' after being given a free hand by the Delhi government and the passengers continue to get affected. The victim still lives in fear and roams around wearing a mask in his own area.
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