Autorickshaw Andolan of Mira Road: story of a andolan fought over two years with successful result

I wanted to write this but didn’t get time so am writing this now ,the auto meter has been implemented in mira road successfully since past 6 moths now.The story starts from Anna andolan,after the andolan we had a big team of IAC members ,we got into habit of going for candle march in the evenings,after annaji ended his Anshan we no more had the reason to gather in public places and make the people aware of the injustice in the society.All of us ,we were around fifty then,some of them eminent and established social workers stayed at home for 2-3 days.

But it turned out to be harder than we thought,we were in a habit,no matter how hard we tried we kept feeling something missing in life.Finally we had a ,meeting on the foot over bridge of mira road station and decided we have to keep on fighting,maybe for local issues now.Someone suggested us the  issue of autorickshaw running on meter,imtiyaz the only member that time with a lot of legal knowledge  told us that the issue was good and the rickshaws are supposed to ply by meter as per the rules but the rules were there but implemented only till Dahisar check naka.

It was all set,we took up the issue,little did we know that the hell will break  loose with this decisions,we had a lot of people around 5o in our team then,some were bankers,students,social workers,business men and engineers.All had a role to play,it was decided,if you can contribute time ,energy,money or even knowledge you are welcomed in the gang.

We started mass awareness campaign ,signature drives on the railway station.In all we got signatures of 17000 people and distributed over a lac of pamphlets in mira road,also filed around 100 RTIs,we got to know that around half of the rickshaws in mira road did not have police permit,it was completely illegal.There was no record of the drivers and most of the auto union leaders had up to 20 police cases including 302 on their name.But thanks to rakesh sarowgi our gang leader ,we didn’t care,even on taking head on with the unions.There were autorickshaw unions in mira road,each more nasty than the other.

As the time passed we started getting threats,the local police and RTO were with the rickshaw unions because of the reasons best known to them,we were arrested ib December from Dahisar check naka when we were distributing pamphlets for awareness programmed.But we were kept in the police station for a few hours and then we were free to go,to this day is don’t understand how we a group of 20 citizens were a threat to peace and harmony.

The turning point happened on 2^nd Feb2012,we were closing down the office,when suddenly rakeshji got a call from gavit,a Traffic police officer that they have managed to bring Shailaker a local auto union leader who had 17 cases against them and some local goons are coming to take him from the police station.She said that rakeshji should come  so that they can keep him .This idea sounded ridicules but sukhdevji suggested that all of us,me ,ritesh avinash and sukhdevji should accompany rakeshji.By now no auto wala took rakeshji anywhere,in fact no autowala went near his building.He had to walk or take a bus,his society member had complaint against him in the police station ,that because of him they don’t get autos in their society.That day we had no idea that it was a trap set for rakeshji,and we were going to have a night of our life.

We waited there in the police station from 8 to 11pm,at first some Mumbai rickshaw union people were there since their man was beaten ,slowly by then the crowd started to gather of all the rickshaw walas whose rickshaws we had got fined or confiscatedAnd slowly the crowd around the police station started swelling.Then suddenly a local RPI leader entered the police station with his men,by this time we were just 5 and they were around 1000.He got into conversation with the police inspector and rakeshji and I started taking a video footage with our camera,that man stood up and said”Maaro saalon ko aur tod do inka camera”.and the whole crowd came towards us,we were just 5 ,we knew no point in running or doing anything,they had already burnt a police constable alive in Vasai.We stood there didn’t move a bit,a goon had his hand almost on my face,but I dint move.Police came in and took us all up,abusing us,as if we did something wrong.

We called up all our people and asked everyone for support since it was almost past midnight and we were detaind.The situation became worst and the local SP intervened,we were safely escorted in the police van to our homes.

Late auto unions called a strike,there was a strike for 8 days ,rakeshji and I had constant stalkers,we filed complaint but later realized it was good that we had a 27x7 on call auto below our building.The autowalas attacked us wherever we went,we were not safe anywhere,it was like if we stood at one place for 10 minutes we were gheraod by autowals.we went to meet the home minister and his PA told us”you better be careful,they don’t have anything to loose,you guys have a lot to loose” I still don’t understand on whose side he was, unconfirmed sources told us that the system got around 9 lac per month from the auto unions.

 Any how the strike was called off,it  again happened when the traffic police put the rate card hoarding on the station.By now most of the people and autounions knew us very well,we used to have tea with them when there was a cease fire and the same people used to beat us up,and threaten us during the conflicting time.We even paid for medical expenses of these autowalas.

Finally rakeshji was attacked which caused him to be hospitalized for 3 days and auto meters were implemented. It took determination and constant efforts of a lot of people, we worked like pieces of puzzle, everyone had a role and all of us worked together, even if someone contributed his knowledge or time he was equally respected.

None of us got anything because of the auto meter,we fought for injustice,If I look back now I think of 100 things that we could have done differently.But at the end of the day we are satisfied that we did something for the society.

I did make friends for life and learned a lot  in this……..that was the biggest achievement