By Nabeel A. Khan
New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS) This is hard to believe, but there is not a single legally authorised stand for the 55,000-odd auto rickshaws registered in the capital, says a suit filed by an NGO that is working to improve the lives of auto rickshaw drivers.

Admitting the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) suit filed by Rakesh Agarwal, secretary of the NGO NyayaBhoomi, the Delhi High Court has issued notices to the government’s Transport Department and to the traffic police, asking them to reply by the next hearing scheduled Jan 13.

Through an application under the Right to Information Act, Agarwal had found from the Transport Department this October that there was not a single legally authorised stand for the vehicles used by thousands of commuters every day.

In 2004, the traffic police notified 314 auto rickshaw stands, but that did not work because the municipal authorities did not put up any sign boards so that commuters could use them.

Anyway, the addresses given for the stands were “vague”, Agarwal said. The notification said that the stands would be at Katwaria Sarai, Central Market of Lajpat Nagar, or the parking lot at Nehru Place, without specifying the exact spot. So that did not work.

Now, the police do operate stands at the railway stations and some busy markets, but they do not have any legal sanction.

“The police have no power to notify auto stands,” said Rajiv Garg, the lawyer who filed the PIL on behalf of Agarwal. The power to do that lies with the Delhi government.

Joint Commissioner of Delhi Traffic Police S.N. Srivastava declined to reply to this, saying his department had already filed an affidavit on this issue in the high court, and he could not say any more.

“I wonder why there is no stand for auto rickshaws, but so many for taxis and even some for tongas,” Garg said.

(Nabeel A. Khan can be contacted at nabeel.k@ians.in)