Autorickshaw drivers offer to take MiD DAY reporters anywhere in city without charging extra fare
Autorickshaw drivers offer to take MiD DAY reporters anywhere in city without charging extra fare PUDHE CHALA: A constable rebukes an errant autorickshaw driver
On the third day of the MiD DAY and Radio One autorickshaw campaign in association with the traffic police and Regional Transport Office, 34 autorickshaw drivers were booked.
Several drivers realised that a campaign was being run against errant drivers. They came up to reporters who were hailing rickshaws and offered to ferry them to any destination at the correct rate.
Traffic Constable Sameer Shinde, who was helping the reporters with the campaign, said that one of the drivers approached him and asked, "Are they the paperwaale?"
MiD DAY conducted the campaign across Swargate chowk, the busiest junction in the city, in the morning and found that it was still difficult for people who did not happen to be MiD DAY reporters to hire a rickshaw to their destination at the correct rates.
Here's what we found 
Reporter: Kranti Vibhute
Place: Swargate Chowk
Time:u00a0 11.30 AM-2.30 PM
Offenders booked: 11
A Passenger approached an auto driver to take him to Hadapsar from Swargate Chowk. The driver refused to take her. When approached again to go to the same destination by the reporter, the traffic policeman booked the driver as soon as he refused and charged for refusing a passenger.
MiD DAY helped the passengers who were repeatedly refused by drivers, to get to their destination, by taking the drivers to task.
Lalita Yelwande, a passenger from Swargate Chowk, thanked the reporter for getting her an autorickshaw as she had been waiting for a long time. She said, "I have been waiting for an auto for the last 15 minutes and two auto drivers refused. Good they are being caught by traffic police with the help of MiD DAY."
Reporter: Sonia Rodrigues
Place: Swargate Chowk
Time: 1 PM-2.30 PM
Offenders booked: 8
An autorickshaw driver refused to go to Shiv Darshan. A few zoomed past the reporter without bothering to stop even as the reporter yelled to hail them. At another spot when a few rickshaw drivers were requested to go to Sarasbaug area, most of them refused, as it would have been cumbersome for them due to one-way traffic. A few of them even asked for extra money.
Reporter: Alifiya Khan and Abid Hasan
Place: M G Road
Time: 11 aM-1.15 PM
Offenders booked: 7
Even though a few auto drivers who refused to take the reporter to the desired destinations were caught, a few managed to get away before the traffic police came.
The reporters were barely able to take down the autorickshaw numbers. By then, a few auto rickshaw drivers had realised what was going on and the word had already spread.
Reporter: Abid Hasan and Sonia Rodrigues
Place: Koregaon Park
Time:u00a0 5:20 PM-6:30 PM
Offenders booked: 8
The drivers were asked to go to Gold Adlabs and most them asked for an extra Rs 10. Of the eight, three drivers refused flatly while the other five wanted more money than the meter reading. The drivers refused to take the reporters saying that the evening show was soon to begin at Adlabs and then they wouldn't get any fare for the next couple of hours.
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