Overloading of diesel autos and city buses remain a problem for commuters of the state capital. The increase in auto fare by two to three rupees in all the routes from Friday has brought more difficulties for them.
Authorities at Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and District Transport Office (DTO) shift the responsibility of Ranchi Traffic Police for tackling the overloading. Traffic Cops, on the other side, claim to conduct frequent checking over the violation.
“As most of the autos carry more number of passengers than required, men aged above 40 years try to touch our body. We have to tell them to sit properly. The same method cannot be applied in city buses as there is no space for shifting,” Smriti Singh, a student of Ranchi Women’s College pursuing Master of Arts in Political Science said.
Similarly, Ishaan Thakur, a first year student of Bachelor of Science in Mathematics Honours at Marwari College said, “My college life has just begun. I often have to get down in the mid of the route and hire a rickshaw since the auto-seats are not fit for sitting.”
Defending such allegations, Traffic Superintendent of Police Rajeev Ranjan said, “We regularly keep a check on overloaded autos and city buses. If caught, we charge some amount as penalty.”
Meanwhile, RMC Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya pointed out that the auto drivers should paste a list in their respective autos mentioning the number of passengers allowed to sit. “When the autos drivers can put the updated fare-list time to time, they can also put the maximum number of passengers allowed to sit in their autos,” the Deputy
Mayor said.
District Transport Officer Rajesh Kumar seemed ‘too busy’ to solve such problems.
“I cannot enquire on these overloading troubles. It is the responsibility of traffic cops. Public is also responsible since they argue with police when asked to pay for the penalty,”
he said.