Rickshaw is a name everyone in Mumbai knows and has a strong opinion about the on the subject whenever it is brought up.  Anyone visiting Mumbai would first be acquainted with these black balloons, which look more like large crows when you see them from a plane. They are in the news at the moment and for all the wrong reasons. First we have to thank the RTO for waking up from a deep very deep slumber by checking the rickshaw meters which we all know has faulty reading. And when the RTO decided to do their job the rickshaw union saw this as a threat to their daily fraudulent earnings.  

They went on a flash strike and at places started rioting, yet when the RTO persisted on their ambitious task at checking faulty meters , they decided to go on a strike demanding fairs be increased. It seems they are hell bent on robbing the common man.  There is more than 1 lac auto rickshaw on the Mumbai roads. They are not only a nuisance on the road by blocking every vehicle that passes, but also when we have to travel by refusing fairs, they clog our roadways. Why can’t the government open their eyes and bring in more quality buses and improve transportation system, the general public does not want rickshaws but are forced to use them.

Their union and union leaders run an organized crime system by blacking mailing the general public of strikes and using fault meters, it is not something the government should not take lightly. 

I know there is no short term resolution to this and I wonder if there ever will be one, it seems corruption and greed runs through the whole system.

I was talking to an auto rickshaw driver the other day and he said the permit cost 40000 a year and the owner of the rickshaw changes him 250 a day as rent and then the petrol cost of driving through the day. How else can he afford to earn and pay all his bills if they don’t use faulty meters he started to complain, I told is it the common man’s fault you don’t have your own rickshaw and you expect the general public to pay for it?

We need to wake up to this menace. We can’t be blackmailed by the whole transportation system – trains, buses, taxis, planes and rickshaws.

If you ask me how then I would say let your legs carry you whenever they can, it’s the oldest and most effective mode of transportation since time began.

Lisbon Ferrao - Author/ Blogger