The RTO has issued showcause notices to 181 auto and taxi drivers in the city suburbs for refusals and excess fares based on commuters sending pictures and complaints over dedicated WhatsApp numbers or email in the past one month, a senior official disclosed on Thursday.
The drivers will be levied fines which will be INR 2,000 for refusals and INR 3,000 for excess fares, an official said. “The campaign will continue and we appeal to commuters to send us complaints over WhatsApp and the email system introduced lately,” the official added.
Those being penalised include 98 drivers in the jurisdiction of Andheri RTO, 29 drivers under Borivli RTO and 54 drivers Wadala RTO, a senior official said.
Activist Godfrey Pimenta said that the NGO Watchdog Foundation was flooded with complaints from commuters who are being fleeced daily at the two airports in suburbs. A cartel of drivers here first identify if the passenger is new to the city, and then falsely inform them that there is “prepaid auto system” with a fake tariff chart which shows nearly double the normal fare. “A few unscrupulous auto rickshaw drivers demand INR 350-400 per ride as bulk fares rather than charging by the meter,” Pimenta pointed out.
Activist Maqbool Mujawar said, “You will find auto and taxi drivers carrying an illegal number of passengers (4 in autos and 7-9 in taxis) and asking for inflated fare.”
Sharada Dey, who took a share auto at Andheri recently, was asked to pay INR 30 which was double the share fare for the same distance. Vaibhav Sonawane, an office-goer, said he was charged INR 40 for a share taxi ride on a Sunday from Regal to CSMT. The taxi was packed with other passengers. Auto drivers carrying excess passengers can be seen in Bandra East, Kurla, Ghatkopar West, Jogeshwari, among other places, sources said.
Another big problem faced by commuters, and highlighted by TOI recently, was refusal to ply by the RTO-approved meter by some auto drivers in suburbs and some taxi drivers in parts of south Mumbai such as Marine Drive, Churchgate and Regal.
