Auto drivers of the town to get ID cards

Silchar, November 28: The auto drivers of the town will have ID cards from January next year. A red sticker of Silchar auto association will have to be put on display on the front glass of the auto–rickshaws. The rules and regulations regarding the movement of auto–rickshaws will be newly framed from January. There will be only point to point movement maintaining 16 km distance. The ID card will be issued only to genuine auto drivers and will help in weeding out drivers who come to the town from rural areas.
Silchar Auto Owners’ Association extended its full help and cooperation to the drive. The general secretary of the Association Bikash Bhattacharjee said that the auto drivers have to collect the monogram sticker from the ten authorized auto stands of the town. He urged the auto drivers to contact Islam Uddin of Chamra gudam stand, Bishu Das of Medical stand, Ranjit Saha of rangirkhari stand, Baul Laskar of Nagatilla, Manna Dutta of Taraur stand, Bijoy Sukhlavaidya of Malugram, Ranu Das od Rongpur–Sadarghat stand, Bablu Chakraborty of Premtala, Makhan Mazumder of Rahimer Dukan and Kabir Hussain of Ramnagar auto stand to get the details of the membership and collect the stickers.
Bikash Bhattacharjee said that they had recently met the district transport officer Angshuman Biswas and raised the issue of the closing of auto permit. The members of the Association told Biswas that the unemployed youths are badly affected due to the closing of the permit. In response to the issue, the DTO said that with the directives from RTI board, the process of issuing permit is put on hold.
The decision to issue ID cards to the auto drivers of the town has been applauded by many. They believe that if the numbers of auto rickshaws that come from rural areas to the town everyday can be checked, the issue of traffic congestion can also be addressed a bit. The setback of traffic congestion is becoming more and more critical with increasing number of all sorts of vehicles, encroached footpaths, narrow and broken roads, and above all frequent violation of traffic rules by its users. Hap–hazard parking of vehicles on either side of busy roads like Shillongpatty, Nazir patty and Hospital road, besides several other locations of Silchar have emerged as a major civic problem. Thousands of vehicles bound for intercity movement find it hard to negotiate through the congestion, culminating in traffic snarl which has become a daily phenomenon. The sources said that around 20,000 to 25,000 auto–rickshaws ply over the Silchar town, out of which maximum are from rural areas. (Source: SentinelAssam)