Auto unit to run in Burari after demands from unions
NEWDELHI:CONTRARY to its plan of completely shutting the Burari transport authority, the Delhi government has decided to continue with the auto-rickshaw unit (ARU) there. The unit, which used to get about 400 autos every day, shot to the limelight in July this year after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called it a “den of corruption” during a visit.
Following this, in October, the transport department opened 13 motor licensing offices (MLOS or RTOS) to auto-rickshaws for fitness tests and permit renewal, while the Burari unit was planned to be shut.
But on Monday, the department issued an order stating that auto unit would continue to operate. Government officials said the direction was issued by Kejriwal in a meeting held last week after auto unions complained of lack of infrastructure in the 13 RTOS.
“The decentralisation has turned out to be a big hassle. Even if a permit of an auto is found locked at an RTO, the driver anyway has to go to Burari as records are not centralised. Then these RTOS have touts which charge ₹2,000-₹3,000 for a work, whereas in Burari, it was just ₹200-₹300,” said Santosh Pandey, president, Aapka Apna Auto Taxi Union.
Data collected from various RTOS revealed that in a month, a number of auto-rickshaw owners did visit these offices for fitness checks. In the past one month of its trial, the RTO at Wazirpur conducted tests on 1278 autos, 1214 at Sheikh Sarai, 485 at Janakpuri , Dwarka 473, Mayur Vihar 501 and 413 autos at Surajmal Vihar .
Pandey, who along with a delegation of auto-rickshaw drivers met Kejriwal this month, said the RTOS, like those in Vasant Vihar, Mall Road and Wazirpur have space crunch. “Burari is a sprawling 37-acre campus. In these RTOS, inspectors are checking devices which do not even fall in their jurisdiction,” he said.
The government had earlier decided that works such as transfer of ownership, loan endorsement and termination, registration and replacement of autos and taxis will be shifted to the department’s headquarters at Under Hill road in North Delhi, construction of which had begun. But after Monday’s order, these services will continue at Burari.
The only thing that has been shut in Burari is the fitness unit for commercial passenger and goods vehicles, the order said. “All taxis, trucks, gramin sewas and buses will now have to go 12 kms farther to the automated fitness unit in Jhuljhuli. We want the VIU should also operate simultaneously,” said Shyam Lal Gola, general secretary of the State Transport Authority (STA) Operators’ Ekta Manch.
The transport department, however, said automation of the Jhuljhuli fitness centre, which the Burari VIU was not, would drastically improve quality of vehicles on road as everything from the brakes, headlights, suspension, emissions and so on is checked on different machines.