Pinch Yourself!

And then head to the Bombay Traffic Police web-site! Yes, it exists even though you and I didn’t know about its existence! All right, you can stop pinching now. On the bottom-right of the home-page, you’ll see an interesting link - its in text, very meek and unassuming, attempting to be innocuous - yes, that’s right, it reads Complaints Against Taxis & Auto Rickshaw. At the risk of being thoroughly graceless and nit-picky, does this mean you can complain about many taxis but only one auto rickshaw?

Yes, okay, these things happen, the important thing is that you and I don’t have to settle for wailing (bad for the throat), gnashing of teeth (bad for the dentures), tearing of hair (bad for your….), beating of breasts (wouldn’t you rather…..) and sundry other self-pleasuring activities. You and I can now go online and fill out a form, and possibly something will happen. Considering that you’ve got to provide your telephone and e-mail contact, you may even be a part of the action - like getting hate-calls from the supreme leader of the taxi-men’s union the inimitable Quadros.

From the Hindustan Times (Bombay edition), Feb-15:

THE NEXT time, an errant taxi or autorickshaw driver charges an inordinate fare, you need not leave the spot grumbling to yourself; just head to your computer and file an online complaint.

The Mumbai traffic police have developed a software which allows the citizen to complain about his or her unpleasant ride in an easy-to-fill online form, on the Mumbai traffic police website.

I suspect that complaints about non-existent shock-absorbers, or being stabbed by seat-springs, or about panic-attacks caused by excessive and sudden darting across lanes and such-like may not yet be entertained. But this is a great start, so please spread the word, use liberally…. and perhaps sometime soon, we could have a taxi network that actually gets us around the city without having to make an interim stop at the family-doctor’s clinic.