Demand access to Srirangapatna, KRS Dam,  Nanjangud as Mysuru is a tourist-centric place

Mysore/Mysuru: Autorickshaw drivers in Mysuru have appealed to the District Administration to extend the permit for their operations to cover tourist destinations around Mysuru including Srirangapatna, Nanjangud, Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam and Balamuri, up to a range of 25 to 30 kilometres. Currently, these drivers are restricted to travelling only up to 4 kilometres beyond the Ring Road and crossing this limit results in penalties.

Auto drivers, under the banner of Karnataka Chalakara Okkoota, held a protest rally in the city on Saturday. They submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, emphasising their grievances and highlighting their demand for an extension of the permit for their operations to a range of 25-30 kms from Mysuru, considering the city’s status as a prominent tourist destination.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, G. Murugan, Okkoota Mysuru District President said that Mysuru attracts thousands of tourists annually and not everyone can afford taxis, with many preferring autorickshaws for their travel needs. However, the current restriction limits autos to operate only beyond 4 kms of MCC limits.

Steep penalty

“If we cross the 4-km limit beyond the MCC and take passengers to KRS or Srirangapatna, we have to pay a penalty of Rs. 6,000 to the Road Transport authorities,”  Murugan said.

District Vice-President of the Okkoota Shivakumar said that the city buses end operations at 10 pm and many passengers and their families who come from far off places are stranded in the bus stand.

“We cannot take them to places including Rammanahalli, Udbur and moreover rural passengers cannot afford taxi fares. Ours is a legitimate demand of increasing the permit limit up to 20 to 30 kms, enabling them to cater to tourist destinations like Chamundi Hill, Nanjangud, Brindavan Gardens, Balamuri, KRS, Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary and Srirangapatna. This extension would help us better serve both tourists and local passengers, addressing wider transportation needs,” Shivakumar added.

The Okkoota has also urged the authorities to stop the transfer of autorickshaw permits from other places including cities outside Karnataka to Mysuru.

“Already there are over 25,000 autos in Mysuru and old vehicles from places like Bengaluru are brought to Mysuru through transfer permits and are resold here where people can own multiple autos. This is contributing to the saturation of the autorickshaw market in Mysuru.  The authorities should stop allowing such transfer of autorickshaw permits from outside Mysuru to the city,”                                 Murugan said.

Bike taxis in Mysuru

The Okkoota has also urged the authorities to ban operation of bike taxis in Mysuru, which have seriously affected their business. “We want Rapido bikes to be banned. These people have hit our earnings. The education needs of our kids, provisions for homes, medicine for the elderly, everything is being crippled because of these bike taxis eating into our earnings,”    Murugan said.

Shivakumar pointed out that there are over 1,500 bike taxis operating in Mysuru. The Government has allowed the operation of only e-bike taxis under the Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme, 2021. However, petrol-run bike taxis from Rapido and Uber can be seen plying around the city and the Transport Department is doing nothing,  he said.

“The bike taxi service is exploiting youngsters by deceiving them with incentives. The aggregators are luring young people to use their ‘illegal’ bike taxi services by putting whiteboards on two-wheelers (intended for personal use) without obtaining any licence from the Transport Department,” he added.

Bharatiya Nyay  Sanhita

Shivakumar also demanded the repeal of the provision in the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita 2023 that imposes fines up to Rs. 7 lakh and imprisonment up to 10 years for drivers found guilty in hit-and-run cases. (The provision has been kept on hold by the Centre now after truckers’ protest.)