Sticker plan to make auto rides safer from Chandigarh railway station

Amarjot Kaur

Chandigarh, January 21

To make auto rides safer for train passengers, there is a plan to introduce stickers exclusively for three-wheelers which ply at the Chandigarh railway station, said members of the local auto union and railway and security officials.

The move comes just days after a woman was raped by the driver of an auto-rickshaw she hired from the railway station on January 9 night. Chandigarh Railway Station Auto-Rickshaw Union president Satish Malik confirmed that the plan to introduce stickers had been suggested at a meeting between auto drivers and the railway authorities. “That way, we will also be able to streamline distribution of work. We are also fed up by outsiders who come to pick up passengers every time a train arrives,” said Malik.

GRP, Ambala Division, DSP Dheeraj said a similar mechanism had earlier been introduced at the Ambala Cantonment railway station. “The monthly charges collected from auto drivers is also nominal,” he said.

Ambala Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) GM Singh said the monthly charges collected from auto drivers would be deposited with the Railways. He added that the auto drivers, after the collection of the monthly charges for plying at the station, would be issued a receipt. “Other auto-rickshaw drivers, who enter the station premises, will be fined,” he said. “We are already not allowing drivers to enter the station platform,” he added.

An official at the railway station said though a similar system was being followed in Ambala Cantonment, this would be the first time that such a mechanism, of issuing stickers or receipts to auto drivers, would be implemented in Chandigarh.

Angered by rape, say drivers

Auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers at the Chandigarh railway station said they too felt sad over an auto-rickshaw driver allegedly raping a woman when he was taking her from the railway station to the Sector 17 bus stand. “Such acts only make us look bad. A hard-working person who respects his work would never think of committing such an act,” said Satish Malik, president of the Chandigarh Railway Station Auto-Rickshaw Union. “However, you cannot blame all of us for an act committed by one person,” he added.

The trigger

The move comes days after a woman was raped by the driver of an auto she hired from the railway station on January 9. Chandigarh Railway Station Auto-Rickshaw Union president Satish Malik confirmed that the plan to introduce stickers had been suggested at a meeting between auto drivers and the railway authorities.