Biometric card scheme for auto drivers fails to take off

The scheme to digitise records of auto drivers and provide them with special cards containing their names, addresses and other details, seems to have fizzled out

Biometric card scheme for auto drivers fails to take off

The scheme to digitise records of auto drivers and provide them with special cards containing their names, addresses and other details, seems to have fizzled out
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The proposal to digitise the records of all autorickshaw drivers in the city seems to have lost steam. The digitisation would have made available to officials from Regional Transport Office (RTO) the records of auto

drivers at the click of a button.

RTO officials claim that the company could not market the scheme effectively.

In late 2008, a plan was conceived by the RTO office in the city to provide auto drivers biometric cards, which will contain all relevant information including name, address, license number, date of issuance in a single card.

This project was forwarded by a Delhi-based software company. According to the plan, the drivers/owners, who availed of this scheme, were to be given a 'biometric' card containing the above mentioned information.

Pune Regional Transport Officer Chandrakant Kharatmal said that the company could not market the scheme and had to shut shop.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for Traffic Manoj Patil said, "If the project would have taken off, a ready database of all rickshaw drivers/owners would have been available making the police's job a lot easier. In a recent case, a student alleged that he was robbed of Rs 5,000 by a autorickshaw driver. Although we have the rickshaw's number, we have not been able to track it."

The issue assumes significance particularly with regards to safety of women who use rickshaws at late nights.

If the victim manages to note down the number of the rickshaw, the police can track it down within seconds.

The police often makes use of the 'Traff-i-cop' software which has data of some auto drivers stored and vital information becomes available when the registration is fed in. But, in case data of a particular rickshaw driver is not stored, police have to approach the RTO for information.

Rickshaw unions in the city however have a different take on the issue. Nana Kshirsagar, president of the Maharashtra Rickshaw Sena (MRS) said, "The schemes were attractive but could not appeal automen because it would have been just another means to attach more strings for a simple rickshaw driver. More profit would have been accrued by the company rather than the rickshawmen", said Kshirsagar.

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