Rehab package for rickshaw pullers chalked out by Bengal govt

Kolkata, Nov 28 (UNI) The select committee of the West Bengal state Assembly on the Calcutta Hackney-Carriage Amendment Bill, 2006, headed by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has chalked out a rehabilitation package for the city's 18,000-odd rickshaw pullers.

''Hand-pulled rickshaws would be a part of history if this bill is passed in this Assembly session,'' Trinamool Congress MLA Partha Chatterjee, who is the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, told UNI today.

''The state government is working on a package to provide compensation or rehabilitation to the rickshaw pullers. Two alternative proposals have been chalked out. According to one proposal, the government would utilise the city's car parking zones under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The rickshaw pullers could be engaged to collect money in the parking lots after they form co-operatives as suggested in the state government report,'' he said.

Talking about the detailed proposal, Mr Chatterjee said about 20 parking lots would be identified to rehabilitate the rickshaw pullers.

The state government has asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to facilitate the process by ensuring that the "cooperatives" are formed by the rickshaw pullers to procure licence.

''The second proposal was that government will also pay Rs 100,000 per rickshaw. The city with a total of about 5987 rickshaws, would require about Rs 60 crore to pay them off. But initially the government had estimated much lesser number of pullers. So it is not clear to how many people the government would provide financial assistance,'' he said adding that the Trinamool would not accept this proposal if the amount is less than one lakhs.

The Calcutta Hackney-Carriage (Amendment) Bill was first introduced in the Assembly on July 20, 2006 and referred to the select committee on a motion moved by the chief minister and minister in-charge of Home Department. The Bill would be placed in the Assembly on December 4.

The Bill also incorporates the objective of bringing in the legislation to eradicate man-drawn rickshaws from the city.

Mr Chatterjee said hand-pulled rickshaws were an integral part of Kolkata life. School goers and senior citizens would be in difficulty during monsoon.

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