Get help calling 103
The Himalayan Times
7 September 2017
Get help
calling 103
It
was encouraging to know that traffic police in Kathmandu have started going
after cabbies who cheat or overcharge passengers for one reason or another.
It’s not uncommon to hear from friends and relatives that they were cheated or overcharged
by metered cabbies while travelling from here to there and so on. So, I am not
the exception. People who are really in need are compelled to use them.
Otherwise, most of the common people these days in Kathmandu have started using
public transportation, which is easily available.
So
far, Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) had taken actions against 100
cabbies in the past three days. This should have been even earlier “More than
100 cabbies booked in three days” (THT, Sept. 6, Page 2). It said that assorted
teams have been deployed in busy areas to monitor taxis for violating traffic
rules like operating without the mandatory seal in fare-meter, tampering with
and using defunct fare-meter and overcharging passengers. MTPD has also started
charging fines of Rs. 5,000 with tampering fare-meter taxis, Rs. 1,500 for
overcharging passengers. Around 6,000 taxis are plying within the Kathmandu
valley.
People
have to be aware of MTPD’s praiseworthy effort to punish taxis which are overcharging
and cheating passengers. The public should cooperate with MTPD by using its
telephone number “103” as and when needed to punish the unruly taxis.
Otherwise, we will continue to be overcharged or cheated by most taxi drivers. It
was good to know that traffic police have been keeping a close watch on taxis
in the daytime and at night when they try to fleece passengers taking advantage
of their emergencies and non availability of public transportation. Time has
also come for the commuters to be responsible for taking necessary steps to
punish overcharging taxi drivers by cooperating with traffic police using the
phone number “103”.
Rai Biren
Bangdel
Maharjgunj
