Date:05/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/05/stories/2006120501011100.htm

National

Requiem for Hackney Carriage

It should have been withdrawn much earlier, says Buddhadeb

Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

PART OF HISTORY: Handpulled rickshaw will no more be a mode of transport in Kolkata as the State Assembly passed a Bill banning it on Monday.

KOLKATA: The hand-pulled rickshaw, long associated with the city's streets and made famous by Dominique Lapierre's best-selling novel The City of Joy, will pass into history with the passage of a Bill abolishing the ancient mode of transport in the Assembly on Monday.

The Calcutta Hackney-Carriage (Amendment) Bill, 2006, was earlier sent to the Select Committee for review in the face of stiff resistance by Opposition parties considering the loss of livelihood it may lead to and the need to work out an alternative package for rehabilitation of the licensed rickshaw-pullers.

There are 5,937 licensed rickshaws pullers in the City.

The State Government had been trying to get this amendment to the Calcutta Hackney-Carriage Act - 1919 in place for the last two years, but had been unsuccessful.

"Shame on the city"

Moving the Bill, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee described the century-old transport system as a "shame on the city," and observed that this inhuman mode of transport should have been withdrawn much earlier.

The basic object of the Bill was to eradicate the inhuman practice of plying man-drawn rickshaws still in vogue in Kolkata after nearly 60 years of Independence as also to eradicate palanquins carried by men, he said.

Alternative

The Chief Minister said the pullers of 5,937 licensed rickshaws, affected due to enactment of the Bill, would either be rehabilitated through self-employment in car parking lots under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation so that they may opt for other profession for their livelihood or be paid a reasonable amount as compensation.

Compensation

Refusing to divulge the quantum of compensation, Mr. Bhattacharjee said the Government would work out how many of them were left after rehabilitation through the self-employment programme.

They would be offered reasonable amount of compensation, depending on the exact number of beneficiaries, he said. — PTI