Chennai's autos to get meters, panic button: Will it get Jaya votes?

What else should a sensible chief minister in should India do? Leave the food, health, shelter, transport and other needs of the people to the market or intervene to take care of them? With elections round the corner and the UPA government unable to stem the price-rise of every essential commodity, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa has pulled another poll-winner from her hat. After her deft market interventions when the rice and vegetable prices went up, Amma restaurants that fed thousands of people every day and buying up stake in the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, she has found a breakthrough that nobody could do in the last 15 years: regulate the auto-rickshaw fares in Chennai. [caption id=“attachment_1061323” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The rickshaws of the city have been a law unto themselves. Firstpost[/caption] Although under pressure from a Supreme Court deadline, her decision will be a major relief for thousands of ordinary people, whose only mode of distress transport and last mile connectivity is the autorickshaw. For political and other reasons, successive governments have allowed their free run, with justifiable allegations that majority of the vehicles are owned by policemen, local thugs and politicians. Of late, the rate of autos in the city have even exceeded radio taxis. Her opponents may argue that she had no choice but to act because of the Supreme Court deadline and if she hadn’t acted, the apex court would have made its own order in another three days. Perhaps true, and an adverse decision would have angered the auto-drivers. This is where perhaps Jayalalithaa seized the opportunity - she not only fixed the prize at Rs 25 for the first 1.8 km, but also added two more fancy, but useful features - a panic button and GPS monitored vehicles. Once implemented, Chennai will be the only city where people can press a panic button if the driver acts weird and the meters are monitored through GPS. Her government will spend Rs 80 crore to fix the GPS-enabled meters, digital printers and panic buttons that will directly alert the police about a misbehaving driver. For years, Chennai auto drivers have been accused of excessive charges and unruly behaviour in the absence of a system. Although the meters made mandatory appearances a few times, nothing could enforce their use.