After 9 months, scheme stillborn
E-rickshaw drivers remain clueless on colours, routes, driving across the city without any QR colour-coded sticker
LUCKNOW: They thought, they tried, they failed, and they forgot. That best describes the well-intentioned plans - like marking routes for e-rickshaws - of the Lucknow police to streamline traffic in the city.
With the departure of some initiative-oriented officers from the helm, it seems the department has forgotten about the scheme they so enthusiastically tom-tommed.
Nine months after the colourcoded sticker scheme was introduced on January 1 to mark routes for e-rickshaws, it has yet to see the light of day.
Most e-rickshaw drivers in the state capital are completely clueless about the police’s initiative regarding the routes and the QR code, which was supposed to have been placed on every rickshaw to determine their routes.
After the registration process which began from January 1, in June as many as 23,761 e-rickshaws were allotted the colour stickers using a lottery system by the then joint commissioner of police, law & order, Upendra Kumar Agarwal. Due to high demand in some zones, zone allocation was done by a lottery system to be fair.
Till date, those QR codes have not been seen on any e-rickshaw.
When asked about the QR scanner by an e-rickshaw driver at the Husariya crossing in the Gomti Nagar area, Ankit Kashyap said, “We usually start driving at around 9 am as it’s the time when people are heading towards offices. We are not informed about any specific routes to follow, nor have we been provided with any QR codes.”
Another e-rickshaw driver, Imran, said, “I usually start my drive from the Kathauta intersection, and it depends on where the customer wants to go; that’s how the day begins. Yesterday, I took a customer to Charbagh Railway Station around 10 am, and no one from the police department has ever stopped me and asked for any QR code or any specific routes. We are not aware of any such procedures.”
A third e-rickshaw driver near the Samta Mulak intersection gave a similar response, saying, “We have not received any instructions from the authorities, and the police do not stop us, and no advisory has been issued so far.”
WHAT WAS SAID
After zone allotment, e-rickshaw drivers were given a month’s time (from June 11 to July 10) necessitating them to display colour-coded stickers on the e-rickshaw. “These e-rickshaw drivers/owners have till July 10 to get registered and operate their vehicle legally. After this date, action will be initiated against them, which may include getting challaned and seizure of e-rickshaw,” the press note issued at that time had read.
Despite reaching out to the current JCP (L&O) Amit Verma multiple times, he remained unreachable on his official CUG.
On January 1 this year, to control the swamping rate of E-rickshaws in the city and to deal with the traffic menace, Lucknow police introduced colour codes for the areas for their better regularisation. Later, Lucknow police also released 16 colour codes for e-rickshaws to be operated systematically in the areas divided into 16 zones in the state capital. Free forms were distributed to all e-rickshaw drivers and details were sought including name, address and driving preference up to a maximum of 3 zones.