the share-auto make chennai cops rich men!

The share auto in chennai, is like no other vehicle on earth, two of them don't resemble each other either. it is a strange contraption put together in a tinkering shop with steel rods and tin sheets and a diesel motor that can power this entire structure and drag a weight of approximately 8 people including the driver. so, obviously we load about 15 people into it. it travels at about 50 kms amidst the chennai traffic, which is against all known laws and sense.

this strange machine operates mostly in the chennai sub-urbs and is a convenient transport at affordable cost for those who cannot afford an auto for themselves, particularly into the small million colonies into which the metro-buses don't venture yet. strangers share seats with each other at very close proximity sharing their breath, sweat and other body odour with strangers without a choice and hang on to their dear life mouthing prayers sure, twice every day as they commute from bus stands and railway stations to their respective habitats. the vibration of the share auto can rattle up the entire skeletal structure rather well and these days most passengers protect themselves from the terrible noise by tucking their mobile phone plugs deep inside their ears.

but, its most important function seems to be to keep the chennai cops rich. apart from paying the owner around 180 a day and fuel expenses each share auto driver according to the one of them who explained this to me, pay the local cops almost 100 rs. per auto per day. it is as though they own some shares in these autos and need their returns every day just like the owner of these machines. if one assumes about 50 vehicle plying under a particular police station (very conservative) that would mean a whopping 5000 per day for a band of 4-5 cops. cool 1k packet per day from the share auto drivers alone, extend it to a month and you know why cops are happy to never regulate these strange machines.

i would not have known the details of these if not for a sympathetic share auto driver who accosted everyone in my regular bus stand and started explaining the reason why he was not on service that day (a procession of these vehicles were parked on the roadside for a few hours as a token 'strike'!), claiming that the cops had demaned rs. 500 on that day or a case be written against them. according to him rs.100 was o.k., but, 500 was too much!!!

these autos are a menace in large public bus stands and railway stations in all the sub-urbs I am sure. Outside the Perambur bus stand (which I pass by regularly) these vehicles rule with the cops only making threatening noises in their direction and tapping the tin sheet with their lathis to give an impression that they are regulating this vehicle menace. It would make sense if only they would ear mark a place for these strange machines to pick up their passengers, that would be facilitating the citizen comfort. i wonder whether anyone in the traffic cop system has time to think about these issues, they must be rather busy counting the cash they 'earn' for maintaining the irregularity.