Illegal fare demands by autos and taxis in India

Now adays,the hot topic for discussion among the middle class families is their travel experiences and encounters with autos and taxi drivers.It’s a human nature to find faults in other’s despite of looking in himself .

We often hear people criticizing the auto and taxi drivers for their unfair fare demands.

I feel that it’s really painful to encounter these illegal demands as soon as you start for your office or any other important work.The best part in this is,people negotiate to some extent and they finally bow down before their demands.

On one side ,these people criticize those guys for their demands ,speaking about their morals,ethics and calling them morons. But what they have contributed for the society at that instant.They promoted the demands of a greedy person,motivating him to be more greedier.

For any problem ,criticism will never bring back the solution. We Indians, have a better habit of criticising the system, government and then going back to our bed.
For each and every corruption in the country, we the mass public are the one who encourages it.

Say,in case of auto driver’s ,demanding illegal fares,how did they adopt this as a hobby.Majority of us most have consented to their demands whenever we would had come across such situations. No one would have reverted back at them at the first encounter itself.
To fulfil his one need, a person promotes a corruption today, for which everyone pays tommorrow including him.
This is the reason behind every corruption. When these auto guys demand illegal fares, if you don’t accept his demand and revert back with few scoldings. You have to take some pain to search another auto but you will surely get one who would go at the usual meter fare.

So, if an auto guy who is demanding illegal fares, gets 30 passengers in a day who refused to take his auto and at the same time gave him few scoldings, in return for demanding unfair fares. The result of doing this would be that the auto guy will think twice putting his demand to the next passenger.
If each and every individual starts following this mantra,the illegal demands will surely go away.
No auto driver will like to sit idle for more than 2-3 days because he too needs to earn his livelihood. Teaching a lesson like this would bring him on the right path.From next time onwards, as soon as you ask him to go to any place ,he will put down his meter with a smiling face and will start his auto.
I remember an instance which happened 20 days back , I had to go from BTM to HSR layout BDA complex( a distance of hardly 4KMS).

1 auto driver demanded 20 rupees above the meter. I reverted back and gave him a good lecture stating that even if he comes back to this place without any passenger from there, he will be in profit as the meter has been designed in that way.
I moved on and found another auto who also put the same demand of 20 rupees above meter. I gave him the same lecture in a more frustrated and disgusted manner.He listened to my words very calmly,but didn’t agree.Don’t know it was because of his ego clashing with his shame. Hope he must would have entertained the next passenger without any hustle.

Thereafter, I reached Swadistha Ahaar(a small hotel), I saw 5 autos standing in a queue nearby , I was happy that I will get one there. Reaching there, I found that all the 5 drivers were sitting in 1 auto and gossiping.Seeing me,1 of them asked in excitement where I needed to go. I said “HSR BDA complex”. Hearing this he put his one hand on his head ,mouth upwards, murmuring and calculating.
I waited for 1 minute wondering which mathematical algorithm and graph theory he is using to calculate the fare for HSR. Finally I heard a loud sound from his mouth” Saahab, 120 rupees de do”.

By this time , I had lost my temper, I only asked” Have you gone mad? Shall I take you to some mental hospital at my own expenses?”.He was silent, by the time he opened his mouth for some negotiation, I had moved on.
Suddenly, I saw one new green auto coming from behind, seeing me he stopped, he put his meter and took me to HSR layout at the meter reading of Rs 35.
With this incident,the message which I want to spread is that , we shouldn’t agree for the illegal demands though it will be a bit painful for us. But, bowing before such things will create problems for thousands of others. Though I invested 15 minutes of time to get an auto with a bitter experience. But the good thing is that I got one finally. So, if the next 10 passengers also would teach the same lesson like me to those corrupt auto guys, they will surely take the 11th passenger at meter reading.

The responsibility and the role of citizens are key points in the social structure of our society.Criticizing the problem will not give the solution.We the citizens have to strive to find out the solution for the things.