Sir,
Public transportation is an important part of the nation’s economy. Rickshaws are mode of human powered transport and it is referred to as a runner drawn two wheeled cart which seats 1 to 2 person. Rickshaw pullers in Patna are migrants from different parts of Bihar who do not get job because they don’t have any skill and higher education they opt rickshaw pulling as their occupation. The socio-economic condition of these rickshaw pullers solely depends on the money given by their customers.
As rickshaws are non-polluting and comparatively inexpensive mode of transport, people prefer rickshaw over auto in many areas of Patna, especially Nala road and Daldali.
Road accidents are increasing day by day and according to recent data (published on 23rd April in Hindustan Times) 61% of road accidents occurs due to driver’s mistake, be it driving in subconscious state, driving fast or the most important – overloading. As observed by me overloading on vehicles is the major cause as of few factors.
The first one is due to overloading the speed of vehicle turns out to be very slow due to heavy weight and due to this people try their best to overtake those vehicles.
The second is due to unbalance- people overload their vehicles so that they can save time, manpower and also because they want to save money. But loading more than capacity becomes a very difficult task for the rickshaw puller specially on bridges. Due to this they sometimes lose their control over the vehicles which further leads to accidents.
Not only rickshaw pullers , autopullers are also a major part of overloading people on their vehicle. They usually make four to five people sit on the seat ideal for three just to earn double money.
As educated people it is our duty to minimize it at our own level, if we can’t ask every rickshaw puller to do so, we can take an oath if the situation comes someday where we have to load our items on it, we will try to control the total weight on them, not of saving money. And also think of not to sit on any overloaded vehicle because being ten minutes late in order to search for some other vehicle is far better than being admitted in hospital or not reaching that place ever.
Yours truly
Ruchika Kumari
CEMS 3rd year

Patna Women’s College

  development, letters, traffic