“The ban on autorickshaws from carrying school students will be reconsidered the moment the auto drivers’ association submits an affidavit, assuring compliance with the norms and guidelines laid down under the Motor Vehicles Act and the instruction to follow the mandatory limit of five students,” Secretary (Transport) Ram Niwas told Newsline. He admitted that the ban was not a solution to tackle the problem of overloading.

According to the Motor Vehicles Act, the autorickshaws need to install meters in their vehicles, follow the pollution norms and not carry more than five students.

“The Administration had asked the association to comply with the norms earlier, but we did not receive any response. We had kept them under check for three months as a trial, in which they failed. This led to the ban as these autorickshaws were posing a threat to the lives of the children by overloading their vehicles. Even if the association submits the affidavit today, assuring to comply with the guidelines, the ban will be reconsidered and can even be revoked,” said Niwas.

The autorickshaw operators are, meanwhile, not ready to limit the number of passengers. “We accept all the norms and conditions fixed by the Administration, except the one on the number of passengers. We will stick to eight children — something we had given in writing to the State Transport Authority earlier,” said Autorickshaw Union president Jarnail Singh Chauhan.

He argued that they would incur losses if allowed to ferry only five children per trip, adding that this would also put extra burden on the parents. “We carry 15 to 20 students at present. If the number is brought down to five, it will not cover our running costs. And if we try to maintain our income level, parents will have to bear the cost,” said Chauhan.

According to the auto operators, the monthly fare will increase to around Rs 1,000 per student, which is around Rs 300 at present.