Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Fish-carts continue to violate law

By S.Shivakumar

CHENNAI April 8. Fish-carts on city roads killed 11 persons in the past three years and continue to operate illegally, with no action being taken by the Police and Transport departments to stop them.

Though they take a toll of life and limb, and cause economic loss to the insurance industry because they create claims while not being eligible for insurance themselves, the official agencies take a benign view of their actions.

During the last three years, fish carts have been involved in over 100 accidents and seriously injured another five persons. The trauma of the victims in accidents involving fish carts is greater as they cannot claim any compensation.

A survey of 100 cart drivers revealed that 90 did not have any driving licence. As the fish carts are not cleared by the vehicle test authorities as required under the Central MV Act for powered vehicles, they cannot be registered or their drivers licensed.

Significantly, the move of the State Government to tacitly allow the fish carts to operate through a G.O. nearly four years ago suffered a setback in the courts, which stayed the order. The G.O. enabled them to register themselves and their drivers to seek a licence to drive a Light Motor Vehicle. With the High Court injunction, all fish cart operations in the city were rendered illegal, just as it was prior to the issue of the G.O.

A recent ban by the traffic police on fish carts from moving on arterial roads is also brazenly violated by the drivers who speed along, even on Anna Salai

The failure of the police to take cognisance of the legal position has led to the multiplication of these illegal contraptions and an estimated 10,000 carts, also called ``load rickshaws'' operate in Chennai. With the authorities preferring to remain silent on the issue despite the danger it poses, an additional two such vehicles hit the road everyday.

While there were no fatal accidents reported in 1998 and 1999, the steep increase in accidents during the last three years reflects the mushrooming of the illegal vehicle population on the city roads.

Most fish carts are owned by traders, such as hardware merchants, who find it profitable to transport their goods ranging from steel rods to construction material through them, rather than hire vans or lorries. Hardly ten per cent of the fish carts are owned by the drivers who hail from economically weaker sections. The traffic Police take the unusual position that they are unable to regulate them because the G.O. meant to help the regulation is held up in the High Court. They, however, do not explain why they are not preventing the vehicles from even operating at all, as they are legally bound to do.

The fish carts are essentially an extended chassis, with wooden planks nailed together and welded to form a platform covered on three sides, all of it propelled by a motorcycle engine.

Enquiries reveal that 250 cc engines of old motorcycles are available for rates ranging from Rs.2000 to Rs.3000.

Thus a fish cart can be built with an investment as low as Rs.15,000 while the other alternative of buying a three wheeler autorickshaw carrier costs nearly Rs.75,000. Moreover, owners of illegal fish carts also enjoy the bonus of not having to pay any motor vehicle tax or for insurance. The usual ploy by police to counter any adverse reports is to put out statistics on the number of cases booked against fish cart drivers. For instance, official statistics reveal that during the last three years as many as 27,000 cases were booked against fish cart drivers and a fine amount of over Rs.14 lakhs collected.

However, what remains a puzzle is that while crores of rupees is earmarked for modernisation programmes, the transport and police authorities hesitate to take action against these vehicles which pose a direct threat to the safety of all road users.

Transport department officials also concede that they do not act against these illegal vehicles, as they would like to avoid attracting public attention to - and therefore scrutiny of - their ``cash rich'' department.

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