The chief minister had imposed a ban on hand-pulled rickshaws at a press conference at the Writers’ Buildings on 15 August, 2005 citing “humanitarian grounds.” Five years later, the dismal picture of human beings pulling rickshaws in hell or high weather continues with thousands of such vehicles plying the streets and no rehabilitation programme for pullers in sight.
As per official figures, there are some 1,457 rickshaws in the city, although unofficially the figure has been pegged at over 5,945.
The worst part in this is the civic authorities' refusing to issue fresh licenses, citing the government’s passing the Calcutta Hackney-Carriage Act in the state Assembly in 2006 banning such vehicles. However, no action has been taken yet to take these nominally illegal rickshaws out of circulation, because of a state government directive against it; nor have plans for rehabilitation of displaced rickshaw pullers materialised.
Solutions in the form of substitutions of the traditional model, exemplified by the "Dipbahan", designed by an IIT-Guwahati scientist, a few of which were ordered by the Kamal Guha-headed state agriculture department in 2005 to ply in Dinhata, were never adopted in the city.
As for the issue of rehabilitation, the rickshaw pullers’ union had proposed that a sum of Rs 40,000 be paid in compensation to rickshaw pullers who wish to retire, while the state government provides new cycle rickshaws to the rest at subsidised rates. But they are still awaiting a reply from the government.
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