Why ban e-rickshaws before even trying to regulate them

Last week, the Delhi High Court stopped electric rickshaws from plying on city roads till there was a law to regulate them. But instead of regulating e-rickshaws and integrating them into the city’s organised transport system, our politicians started pandering to the new political constituency of at least two lakh e-rickshaw drivers, owners and dealers. In June this year, the BJP pulled off a political coup when the Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari declared that e-rickshaws would be out of the ambit of the Motors Vehicles Act. The traffic police and transport department couldn’t insist that the drivers get a driving licence or a public service badge, which all other motorised public carrier drivers must have. But having allowed them to run for two years and fill a critical gap in Delhi’s public transport system, e-rickshaws can’t be wished away.