KANCHEEPURAM: As many as 200 private carriers of Ape Piaggio Auto were parked inside the District Collector’s office here on Monday in protest against what their operators called the highhandedness of the operators of Tata Magic, who have been permitted to ply as ‘contract carriage’, but, in fact, they have been plying them as ‘stage carriage’, thus depriving the Ape Auto operators their livelihood.Ever since Tata Magic burst on the roads a few months ago, the operators of Ape Auto were up in arms against them as the former was accused of making inroads into their territory of revenue of income. The number of Tata Magic has now increased to 114, and since most of them are allegedly used as ‘stage carriages’ throughout the town, the turf war accelerated to a new high on Monday with the drivers of Ape Auto accusing the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) M K Suresh Kumar of playing a ‘Kangaroo Court’ in favour of the Tata Magic operators.Suresh Kumar told Express that his duty was only to grant permits, and that they have been booking vehicles from time to time when they violate conditions, irrespective of which category of vehicles cross the fault line. The police washed their hands off the reviving issue with SP S Manoharan saying that ‘’it is for the RTO or the District Collector to take a decision on the matter.’’However, the Taluk police, under instructions from DSP K Rajendhran booked as many as 20 vehicles recently for violating rules. The problem is we can book violators of Tata Magic only on a petty case, but RTO also has the right to fine them on the spot under the Motor Vehicles Act, Rajendhran said.There are already around 350 Ape Autos, 36 share autos, and around 2000 passenger (Bajaj) autos plying on Kancheepuram roads. Of these, only the 36 are share autos and they are permitted to ply within a radius of 30 km. The Ape Auto drivers complained to RTO that they are threatened by representatives of Tata Magic operators, and the turf war reached up to the Collector’s office. Collector Sivashanmuga Raja, after holding talks with representatives of the Ape Auto operators in the presence of RTO Suresh Kumar, told Express, “I am trying hard to find an amicable solution, but if things go out of hand there is no other way but to book them for violation of conditions.” The Collector has also called for a peace meeting in the office of RDO Dr Veerappan on Tuesday to iron out a solution.
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