Two super cops' differing views on how many people should travel in an autorickshaw have created a Frankenstein called overloading.

The victims? Everyday commuters who do not have much of a choice but to ply in autorickshaws that are filled from left to right and do not even have an 'elbow room' for the driver to manoeuvre the three-wheeler in the busy streets of Patna.

According to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, an autorickshaw is allowed to take only three passengers. Drivers of the three-wheeler will be fined Rs 100 for each excess passenger under Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

But rules in Patna are made to be broken. Some autorickshaw drivers even ferry five to six passengers and take great pride in bribing the cops, who are happy pocketing the money rather than penalising the driver.

Patna traffic police have virtually surrendered before the autorickshaw unions as far as overloading is concerned just like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus - a novel about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

The police department on Wednesday accepted that it has allowed one person in the front of an autorickshaw even though rules state that not a single person should be allowed in the front.

'I have allowed one passenger beside the driver. I tried to check the violation of the rules but I got calls from the autorickshaw association asking for norm relaxation,' said Prantosh Kumar Das, the traffic superintendent of police, Patna.

But his boss and senior superintendent of police Jitender Rana had a different take on the issue. 'Rules are rules. No one is allowed to tweak them. Not even cops irrespective of their ranks,' Rana said.

Amid which rule to follow and which to not, the commuters are the one who are suffering everyday.

Rakesh Solanki, a 28-year-old resident of Khagaul, injured his right knee last Friday in an autorickshaw he was travelling with six people - three at the rear and an equal number in the front. The autorickshaw was hit sideways by an SUV.

Solanki was sitting in the front seat with one leg outside the autorickshaw when the accident occurred. He took a hairline fracture back home.

More than 5,000 autorickshaws ply daily via Dakbungalow Chowk violating traffic rules.

The Telegraph had photographed an autorickshaw carrying five passengers, while the traffic SP was on the spot, on Wednesday. 'We often fine autorickshaw drivers for overloading. We have allowed one passenger in the front for now but will gradually ask them to carry three,' added the traffic SP.

More than 15 accidents occur on Boring Road every month because of overloading. 'I have fined several autorickshaws for overloading. But if police officers at higher positions are not concerned about the implementation of the traffic rules, we cannot do anything,' said a constable deployed on Boring Road.

The constables have their own ways to defend the rampant violation of traffic rules.

'Commuters are impatient. Even if the autorickshaw driver asks them to sit beside them, they should refuse,' said Narendra Singh, a constable deployed on Boring Road. Commuters held the traffic police responsible for the overloading.

'The police have failed at every front. They have failed to implement and check the violation of traffic rules. I have been commuting from Bailey Road to Gandhi Maidan everyday for the past five years but I have never found any cop penalising autorickshaw drivers for overloading,' said Pratyush Chaudhary, a telecommunications employee.