The Calcutta High Court today directed that all auto-rickshaws in West Bengal should be fitted with meters within eight weeks.
Taking up a PIL by Ramaprasad Sarkar, a practising lawyer, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joylamyo Bagchi directed that all autorickshaws must charge fares on the basis of fare charts on meter calibration fixed by the West Bengal transport department.
Autorickshaws at present run on the basis of fixed fares on fixed routes which are decided by unions backed by different political parties.
Sarkar prayed before the court that the fares of auto-rickshaws be based on meters instead of being fixed whimsically by operators and union leaders.
He stated that operators charged different rates at different hours of the day and harassed commuters to no end.
Sarkar submitted that though autorickshaws were issued contract carriage permits, they were operating on stage-carriage basis illegally.
Autorickshaws were first introduced in Kolkata and suburbs during the tenure of former transport minister Subhash Chakraborty as the poor people's taxi and ran on meters.
But operators soon started using them from point to point with routes operated by unions.
This soon became a menace for the city's already fragile transport system, causing huge snarls due to their tendency to flout all traffic rules.
