Will address taxi, auto woes in Mumbai on priority, assures Fadnavis

Exclusive: Following mid-day's coverage of harassment commuters face at the hands of the auto mafia, CM Devendra Fadnavis instructs agencies to step up drive; promises more cops on the ground at vulnerable points

Following mid-day's campaign against errant auto and taxi drivers in the city, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday promised intervention in the matter. "People's comfort is the topmost priority of my government. I have asked the authorities concerned to deal with the situation on a priority basis,"
he assured.

Over the last couple of weeks, mid-day has reported on action by traffic police against auto and taxi drivers harassing commuters at several heavily crowded junctions across the city, with focus on BKC, Bandra East, Kurla, LTT and Borivli.

Traffic policemen act against an auto driver for violations outside LTT

'Will ensure smoother transport'
The traffic police have so far fined more than 15,000 auto drivers and has seized around two dozen illegal autos since the campaign kick started earlier this month. An order was also issued by Mumbai Police Commissioner Subodh Jaiswal's regarding the crackdown.

Chief Minister Fadnavis said that his government was also making effort to "make transport in Mumbai easier." He pointed to the ongoing work on the wide Metro network in the city. "Even water transport is on our agenda. The Metro work will definitely be a game changer. As far as the problems in BKC are concerned, they are also on our agenda. We will take it up on priority to ensure ease for commuters," Fadnavis said.

Traffic police acting against an auto driver for refusing fare at Kurla West station

A few days into the drive, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Amitesh Kumar too had promised an end to the traffic woes. In an interview to mid-day, Kumar had assured that office-goers would see a change with his special drive and innovative methods to handle traffic menace at BKC and other areas. Kumar had also held a high-level meeting with all Regional Transport Offices (RTO) in the city.

Commuters' harassment must stop
Fadnavis, meanwhile, said that he had instructed "all concerned stakeholders to ensure that there was no harassment of commuters in any form, especially outside railway stations during peak hours." "We will make sure that enough number of traffic police are deployed at vulnerable locations to stop this and stringent action is taken against those violating the law and refusing to ply. Also, the special drive by the traffic police will continue till the problem is solved," he assured. In an earlier conversation, Transport Minister Diwakar Raote had blamed the home department for the issue saying that enough police was not deployed on city roads. Raote had also asked commuters to take the buses instead of autos if drivers refused to ply.

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