Directionless
authorities are mulling over a policy to control Delhi's ubiquitous cycle rickshaw traffic. But whether this is the answer to the woes of rickshaw pullers or of slow-moving traffic in the capital is the moot question. A high-level committee constituted by the state on November 13 is to submit its recommendations by mid-December to formulate the policy to regulate cycle-rickshaws. The committee comprises Delhi government's principal secretary, urban development, chairperson of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (mcd) and the police commissioner, Delhi.
With the dismantling of the quota-licence system, following the intervention of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the expected respite for rickshaw pullers never materialised (see: Down To Earth , Vol 10, No 9, September 30, 2001).
Under the earlier policy, first formalised in 1960, the owner of a cycle rickshaw was granted licence, but for only one rickshaw. Vajpayee had also recommended in a missive to Delhi's Lieutenant Governor in 2001 that the city be divided into