[sustran] (no title)

[kisan mehta]

Dear Paul, Eric, Wendell, Sujit and Sustran Colleagues,

Banning or even restricting becabs and rikshaws is
totally anti-people.  So are plans to disable pedestrians
wanting to reach their destination using physical energy.
That this is happening in poor countries like India and
Philippines is a matter of shame for all.  How can
politicians and public servants take such stand while
claiming to be people's representatives/public servants?

In Mumbai with high car concentration compared to other
Indian cities, about 15 persons share one car which means
that only one is a car owner while 14 are non-car owners. Yet authorities do
everything to hound out those 14 to provide
licence to the one to drive his car as he likes. Private cars run at
government cost (in reality at the common man's cost), use
public roads but do not pay anything in return. As if this is
not enough, the government extracts about 15% out of public
road service earnings though bus fare is as low as Rs 2
(equal to US 2 cents) for the first 1.6 km providing links
to far off locations. Yet they cannot ply on many roads
on  the excuse of traffic (what is traffic?).

Mumbai does have appro. 35,000 auto rikshaws which
carry upto 3 passengers.   Fares are about 50% of taxies
carrying max 4.  Riks cannot ply in about 20% of
Mumbai's area, having higher public transport demand.
Cars can move and park jolly well even in narrow lanes
free of charge causing bottlenecks. Buses and ricks
(next to walking) are more preferred but are disallowed
on grounds of pollution. Poor walk upto 8 km to job as
many a jobs do not provide extra for bus/train ticket.

It is a fact that rikshaws are outmoded causing air and noise
pollution. Can one claim that cars do not?  At present
pining to become car owner middle class young have aligned
against low cost journey providers using environment as
cover to restrict bus/riks movement. They move legal courts
to oust riks as well slum dwellers, 65% of  Mumbai population.
The situation in Pune where Sujit resides is no better, probably worse.
Pune was 3-4 decades a cycle town. Since the arrival of motor cycles,
non-motorised cycles are replaced by motorised cycles worsening the
situation. In such a highly urbanised town,
motor have invaded creating problems that Sujit has well highlighted.

That such a bias has developed in Philippines is beyond
imagination. Bulk of the population is poor by any
standards.  People have recently installed a popular
president removing a corrupt one.  Pedicabs provide
jobs to unskilled god-fearing citizens.  We feel the
Konsorsium is doing everything to get out the car mania.
Citizens are with them.

Tell us how and where we can help.  What Konsorsium is
doing is the most minimum that anybody having minimum appreciation of public
good would do. We are in the same
boat. Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta mail to:kisansbc at vsnl.com


----- Original Message -----
From: Sujit Patwardhan <sujit at vsnl.com>
To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
Cc: <kisansbc at vsnl.com>; Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>; Paul
Alexander Barter <geobpa at nus.edu.sg>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 11:08 AM
Subject: [sustran] Update on Jakarta by Konsorsium
Kemiskinan Kota



 
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