Ludhiana e-rickshaw drivers protest against deadline to register vehicles
Four days before the deadline for installing number plates, the drivers held a rally and submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner Sakshi Sawhney, seeking relaxation; however, the police are sticking to their stance and announced that they would initiate action against the violators from March 16
E-rickshaw drivers on Monday held a protest outside the mini-secretariat against the March 16 deadline set by the police for installing number plates on the vehicles, failure of which will invite strict action by the cops.
Four days before the deadline for installing number plates, the drivers held a rally and submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner Sakshi Sawhney, seeking relaxation. However, the police are sticking to their stance and announced that they would initiate action against the violators from March 16.
The E-rickshaw drivers and authorities in Jalandhar and Amritsar have agreed to register the e-rickshaws with the municipal corporation and to issue them slips after accepting registration fee. They appealed to the authorities to impose the same system here otherwise more than 50% of e-rickshaw drivers would go out of job.
Ranjit Singh, president of e-rickshaw driver union, said that they had bought e-rickshaws from agencies and financiers around three years ago and they were told that they would not need any document or licence to operate.
“Many of the agencies have vanished and made it impossible to get the registration. The middle men demanded ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 each for registration,” he added.
The city police had given an ultimatum to e-rickshaw drivers to get their vehicles registered by March 15 following which, the police will start impounding the unregistered vehicles. There is panic among e-rickshaw drivers with only four days to the deadline.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP, traffic) Charanjiv Lamba said the directive to enforce this crackdown came from higher authorities, including additional director general of police (ADGP, Traffic) AS Rai and commissioner of police Kuldeep Singh Chahal. It has been discovered that a number of e-rickshaws in circulation are not registered, posing a serious risk as they have been used in criminal activities such as snatchings and thefts.
The ACP added that they have already held a meeting with e-rickshaw drivers and gave them one month’s time to complete all the formalities. Some e-rickshaws that were sold years ago by now-defunct dealers are facing registration issues. If such vehicles have already completed four years, they will be road worthy.