THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After months of uncertainty, the authorities have finally decided to kick-start the project for issuing ID cards to autorickshaw drivers conducting services in the city. The commencement of the project had been stalled several times owing to various hurdles such as lack of consensus between the authorities and the leaders of the various motor workers unions in the city. The City Police, as the first phase of the project, have approved the applications of as many as 2,000 autorickshaw drivers after scrutiny and they will be given the ID cards soon. The move was following the go-ahead given by the Deputy Mayor to the City Police as the failure of the talks held in this regard was delaying the realisation of the project indefinitely. "The printing of the ID cards has already begun. Now, it is only a matter of time before the project is officially launched,’’ said City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham. The implementation of the project, which was announced earlier this year in a bid to prevent the misbehaviour of autorickshaw drivers towards passengers, was delayed after the Police Department and the workers’ unions entered into a blame game, each alleging the other of attempting to get their interests achieved through the project. As a result, the meetings convened by the Mayor had also failed several times. The leaders of the workers’ unions had sought the authority to distribute the application forms of the project citing the reason that they could prevent drivers without permits to service in city limits from being a part of the project. But the police started the distribution of the application forms without involving the unions. The union leaders were miffed at the police action and alleged that some senior police officers in the Traffic Department were trying to include drivers, who were close to them, in the project even though they did not have any papers. The union leaders had also alleged that the police action would not help the primary aim of the project and, as a result, unqualified drivers would become a part of the project. The police had responded by stating that the primary aim of the project was not to regulate the number of autorickshaw drivers in the city, but to make it easy for the passengers to report complaints if they faced ill-treatment from autorickshaw drivers. The City Corporation has set aside a fund of Rs 20 lakh for the implementation of the project. The decision of the authorities will be intimated to the union leaders at a meeting that is scheduled for June 27.
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