Only 40 auto-rickshaw drivers in the city are members of the ‘exclusive’ Auto-rickshaw Star Club that has pledged never to refuse or over-charge a customer.

“That’s the chief aim of our club. We want to reform the image of the auto-walla — probably the most hated individual in the city,” says Dilip Mishra who has been driving around the city for the last 14 years and has been a member of the club for the last seven months.

As a member of the club now, Mishra claims that he never cheats a customer and puts his meter down even without being asked, ensures that he is smartly dressed in his grey uniform and takes a lunch break. “These are the basic ethics,” says Devender Yadav, an auto-rickshaw driver in the city for the last five years.

The club of auto-rickshaw drivers was formally constituted last October with the help of an NGO Nyaybhoomi. In January 2008, there was a pilot run of the project in which six drivers were given uniforms by the NGO. The club, based in Vikram Nagar near Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, raises funds through advertisements pasted on the auto-rickshaws.

“We have trained members in ethics, behaviour with customers and their own rights. Once an auto-driver is inducted as a member, he has to promise that he will never cheat a customer,” says Rakesh Aggarwal of Nyaybhoomi.

“We have nearly 40 people who are yet to be inducted and are undergoing training, but we are also very selective,” Mishra says.

Mishra says that the club has created a pool of auto-rickshaw drivers aware of their rights who help other drivers in need. “There was an auto-walla at my stand who had trouble with the transport authorities in getting his licence renewed. I helped him get the work done,” he said.

“If auto-wallas are badly behaved, it is also because of the total lack of facilities. Can you imagine there is no place to park an auto when we do not have a passenger? We don’t have enough stands and we get challaned by the cops,” says Yadav.