Sunday, April 4, 2010

Delhi's autorickshaw drivers



Yesterday, I spend some harrowing time with one auto rickshaw driver. I wanted to go to a nearby shopping market in Vasant Kunj. I thought fortis hospital would be a good choice for getting the auto rickshaw. I asked one auto rickshaw driver who just bought one passenger to that place. He straight away refused to go. To which I replied "Bhaiya strike pe chale jaate nahi chalana to" (Brother go on strike if you don't want to go). He become angry and said "What do you said". I came to him again and repeated the same sentence. Just after that he started abusing me badly. I reached for his collar to grab him but other people stopped me from doing so.

I called the auto helpline number immediately and registered a complaint against him. (Those who do not know the auto complaint number, here it is- 01123010101. Save this number on your mobile and next time when you find any auto driver refusing to go, dial this number). So coming back to my story, after that he become more angry and said some nasty things about my family. I maintained my calm and called police. There were other people gathered and listening to our fight. One elderly man stopped his car and came to me to inquire about the matter. This auto driver was still not in his senses gathering other auto drivers. The elderly man tried to tell him that don't use such language to the customers. Other auto drivers who were also there tried to stopped him from talking nonsense.

When the police came, the auto driver changed his language and told the police that he never used such language. But everybody knows how he was talking. There was this guy who was watching this from the distance came to me and told everything to the police. Police asked me that "Do I want any action against this auto driver". I said no, I just wanted to teach this auto driver a lesson so that he does talk badly to customers. Policemen asked the driver to say sorry to me. There were other auto drivers who said, we will drop you to the place.

I just wanted to share this experience so that people can know what they can do and how to deal with such crooks. They have been given license and auto rickshaw so that they can drop people to their respective destinations whenever required. But these auto rickshaw drivers taking advantage of this charge more money to the commuters and also refuse to go when we don't pay the money they wanted.

If you had similar kind of story to share, do comment or write about it.

4 comments:

A said...

I love the auto rickshaw drivers of Mumbai, they are awesome!

Varun said...

I hope some of them shift to delhi.

mood.swinger said...

soo true! happens to everyone. over-charging is such a common thing. n thnx for that helpline number!

CutePriya said...

This is horrible and not just the case with one. Talking rudely, over-charging are common. Thanks for the helpline number and bringing such instance to notice...