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| Cycle rickshaws to go off Delhi's main roads | | | BL KAK
NEW DFELHI, Apr 21
Main roads in the vicinity of national capital, Delhi, will soon witness a change. Cycle rickshaws will cease to choke these roads. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has begun to prepare a list of arterial roads on which rickshaws will not be allowed as they interfere in the movement of fast-moving traffic.
Rickshaw pullers in several areas of Delhi have been on tenterhooks, as till now their business originated and flourished largely on the main roads. According to the MCD officials, they have a limit for issuing licences to 99,000 rickshaws but only 77,000 rickshaws actually have the licence. Unconfirmed figures claim that more than 300,000 cycle rickshaws ply in the city. And the ones in Old Delhi earn huge profits due to the wholesale markets in the vicinity, wherein maximum business takes place.
An MCD official said: "We impound the unlicensed ones. But after a few weeks they are on the roads again. The owners pay bribes and manage to get on with their business. But now we are being more strict and prosecuting rickshaw pullers who stray into the no-plying zones". The rickshaw pullers come primarily from States including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Most of them continue to ply the old models on rent that first came into existence in the 1930s. They neither have the means to buy a rickshaw nor are aware how to obtain a licence.
The city of Delhi may be thriving with Pajeros, Mercedes and BMWs. But cycle rickshaws are rubbing shoulders with these in virtually all city colonies, as they are considered an easy mode of transport for residents who prefer to take it to and from their homes to the markets be it in Lajpat Nagar or Shahdara.
In July last year the Delhi High Court had pulled up the MCD for not taking adequate measures to prevent unlicensed rickshaws from plying in the city. The MCD, though, has no plan to snatch away the livelihood of thousands of families depending on rickshaws as their source of income, it is coming heavily on them with stricter norms. But on the other hand, MCD is also looking into their interests. Said the MCD official: "To prevent exploitation of the rickshaw pullers, who usually do not own these vehicles, the new plans would include a new policy stating that no licences would be granted to people who are not plying the rickshaws themselves".
Also, special camps would be conducted to carry out health check-ups of the licensed rickshaw pullers. And they would be provided special cards at the time of registration, which would allow them to avail free treatment at any of the MCD hospitals or clinics. The MCD had introduced a colour scheme for licensed rickshaws in the past so that the unlicensed ones could be spotted easily and fined, but the scheme did not work.
The official said: "To prevent movement of rickshaw pullers from one zone to the other, we had allocated specific colour plate for rickshaws for each of the 12 municipal zones, but it was rarely followed, especially in the Walled City of Chandni Chowk". Although already thickly populated, rickshaw pullers continue to thrive in the Old Delhi areas. "The bylanes of this area are so narrow that except a rickshaw no other mode of transport can make way there", the official complained.
Meanwhile, the Delhi State government headed by Sheila Dikshit has been planning to revolutionise the city's transport scenario by running battery-operated or CNG-run mini buses in certain areas. But till the plans are formulated the rickshaw will continue to form the city's lifeline.
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