MUMBAI, January 29: It's being referred to as the Line-of-Control. At Kone village, which is equi-distant from Kalyan and Bhiwandi, rickshaw drivers from both the towns line up in two neat rows and passengers coming from either side change rickshaws for their further journeys.It is the passengers who are suffering in the tussle between the autorickshaw drivers from Bhiwandi and Kalyan. Following a week of violence which saw drivers from both areas tearing up hoods and smashing windshields of rival vehicles, the auto-drivers have now found a convenient solution. They now ply their vehicles only within their areas, thus leaving the hapless passengers with no choice but to change rickshaws on their way to the powerloom town from Kalyan and back and also pay double the fare.
Ram Deshmukh, an auto-driver from Kalyan said, "Ever since (the fight broke out) we don't go to Bhiwandi and they don't come here. We drop the passengers at Kone village. Their area starts from there." However, what Deshmukh convenientlyleft out, this reporter discovered when had to pay Rs 10 at Kone and shell out another Rs 10 for the next nine kms. As rickshaws here do not follow the metre system, passengers usually pay the fare quoted by the driver. On a lucky day they get to travel in a shared auto, the accepted fare for which is Rs 10 per seat to Bhiwandi.
The problem arose when Bhiwandi automen objected to rickshaw drivers from Kalyan wanting to make fast buck on their way back. "They are willing to ply on as little as Rs 5 a seat on their return journey. This way they are eating into our business," rued a rickshaw driver, Akhtar Salim. The Kalyan automen make similar charges against their Bhiwandi counterparts.
Barely two days after the last tripartite meeting between the traffic police and representatives of both the unions was held on January 19, a Kalyan auto-driver was attacked, the hood of his vehicle torn and the windshield smashed at Bhiwandi. As soon as they heard about the assault, automen from Kalyan retaliated byattacking Bhiwandi auto-drivers.
According to Prakash Penkar, chairperson of the Kalyan Autorickshaw Chalak Malak Sena, "This is not the first time the auto-drivers of the two towns have fallen out with each other. Every six to eight months there is a clash which is temporarily resolved after the leaders intervene. However, they are soon back to fighting."
For traffic authorities it's an internal problem of the rickshawmen. An official pointed out that if the auto-drivers were to adhere to the understanding arrived at during the last meeting, there would be no problem. It was decided at the meeting that auto-drivers from Kalyan would ply passengers upto any point in Bhiwandi but would not pick up any passengers on their way back, except at the Saibaba temple outside the city limits. Similarly, it was decided that Bhiwandi automen would only pick up passengers only beyond the Durgadi fort.
"As long as the automen do not comply, the dispute will remain unresolved," he said, adding that "there is a stiffresistance by the drivers to plying on the metre system." However, Mohammed Aslam Abdul Hamid Sheikh, chairperson of the Bhiwandi Autorickshaw Chalak Malak Sangh, feels that the ball is in the traffic police's court. "I agree that they cannot patrol the 18 km stretch but they can surely book people when instances are pointed out," he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
