MUMBAI, January 22: Nearly 50,000 taxi drivers in Mumbai have threatened to launch an agitation against the alleged victimisation by the traffic and the city police demanding regular hafta. The regularly reported cases of harassment by the police rose steeply in the recent weeks. Three cases were reported in a single day on Wednesday in which taximen were beaten up by cops and also fined apparently for no reason.In the first case, Nizamuddin Ahmed Khan had parked his taxi (MMO 1824) near Gulalwadi, at Pydhonie when two constables and an officer came up to him. ``Without even asking me anything, they started beating me up,'' said Khan. ``They also kicked and punched me mercilessly till I dropped unconscious. I regained consciousness ten minutes later only when a passenger helped me up,'' he added.
Rajeshkumar Pandey was the second to fall prey to the cops when he had parked his taxi (MRO 7543) in the Malabar Hill area. ``Two police constables asked me to get out of my car as they wanted to show me where Ihad parked my vehicle. No sooner I stepped out, they slapped and abused me. Then they asked me to pay Rs 1,700 as fine for parking in a no-parking zone and also for not having the entire set of vehicle registration and taxation documents and threatened to put me behind bars.''
Suresh Gupta was the third cab driver beaten up by a constable at Chembur. His crime was that he had parked near a taxi stand which was occupied by private vehicles. ``These incidents are only the tip of the iceberg,'' A L Quadros, President of the Bombay Taximens' Association said adding that he has received about 80 cases in the last month alone. The figure is increasing day by day, he added.The union chief revealed that as taximen do not give hafta to policemen as is a practice with the truck, tempo drivers and pavement vendors, the only option left is getting physical.``We do not mind paying a regular hafta to the police provided it is reasonable,'' said Quadros.
Traffic police, however, do not buy the taximens' story. Terming
the allegations as ``baseless'', Traffic Inspector (Prosecution) Suresh Bhoomkar said, ``Taxi being a public service vehicle, is always found on the roads which leads to violation of traffic rules and thus faces penalty.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
