Among those issues discussed at the meeting included running autorickshaws by the meter, fuel adulteration, school autos, rickshaw parking stands and the practice of handing over RTO memos to erring autorickshaw drivers while routine checking.

Presidents of Shakti Autorickshaw Sangh, Surat Autorickshaw Mandal, Surat School Autorickshaw Sangh, Varachha Autorickshaw Sangh, Ekta Autorickshaw Sangh and Sahayog Autorickshaw Sangh attended the meeting. A joint release issued by the rickshaw unions said that while a some issues, where rickshaw drivers were found to be erring, had been identified, a few demands were also made during the meeting.

While autorickshaw unions have agreed to get meters installed in their vehicles at the earliest and even assured the authorities that fuel adulteration would stop, there were disagreements over other issues like school autos, handing over of RTO memos to drivers during checks and parking stands for rickshaws.

While the unions demanded that 10 students be allowed instead of the permitted nine, they also stated that it was unnecessary to get a separate permit for transporting schoolchildren apart from the regular commercial vehicle permit.

They also demanded that the system of traffic police handing out RTO memos instead of referring them to traffic courts (RTO cases attract a much heftier penalty) be stopped, saying that the traffic police were not authorised to issue RTO memos.

The unions also demanded that rickshaw stands, which were earlier sanctioned be set up again.

The leaders alleged in the meeting that although all vehicle drivers flouted traffic norms, only rickshaw drivers were being singled out.