Hyderabad: Several autorickshaw unions took out a protest rally in Himayatnagar against inspections by RTA and traffic police officials, who are charging that autorickshaws carrying six schoolchildren with violation of guidelines and penalising them.
Protesters also burnt an effigy of the transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar.
According to the union attached to Aituc, way back in 2001 the then Telugu Desam government had issued a GO that allowed autos to carry six school students in one trip. The Union members said that this has been continuing all these years. They wondered why the RTA and traffic police were going about inspections in school zones from this academic year.
Mohammed Umar Khan, president of the union, said, “The authorities are harassing autorickshaw drivers. Why have they suddenly started conducting inspections and slapping heavy fines on us and why are our vehicles being seized? We urge the authorities to stop these special drives and allow six school students in one auto.”
M. Purushotham Reddy, RTO Hyderabad, said, “The authorities allow six school students in one auto, whereas those auto-rickshaws, which accommodate passengers beside the driver and school bags hanging outside vehicles, are violations. This is because they can cause accidents.”
