look news india
Lucknow/Ground report. In Lucknow, the city of Nawabs, dissatisfaction is deepening among common citizens and vehicle owners regarding the functioning of the Municipal Corporation and the Traffic Police. Ignoring the huge traffic jams that occur throughout the day in front of the city’s busiest intersections, hospitals and big commercial establishments, the game of lifting vehicles from inner streets and deserted service lanes using cranes (towing vans) is going on in full swing. Local citizens and businessmen directly allege that instead of reining in the real encroachers, the Municipal Corporation’s enforcement squad and traffic management system are promoting illegal recovery of crores of rupees and challan syndicate by arbitrarily towing the vehicles of the general public.
The condition of the car market, located a few steps away from the Municipal Corporation headquarters in Lalbagh, the city center, raises the most questions. Despite ‘No Parking’ boards being put up, sellers of old vehicles (car dealers) have encroached upon the public road by parking hundreds of vehicles on both sides of the entire route. This is the same route through which the vehicles of top officials of the Municipal Corporation pass daily. Despite this, neither cranes run on the vehicles of these influential car market operators nor any challan is issued to them. Local residents say that where the main road is blocked, a blind eye is turned and where no vehicle is affecting the traffic, the crane makes the vehicle disappear within minutes.
The same dual attitude is being seen in other major parts of the city also. Due to illegal gathering of attendants and auto drivers around Medanta Hospital situated on Amar Shaheed Path and Chandan Hospital near Chinhat, ambulances and common vehicles keep crawling for hours throughout the day. The administration does not show any concrete interest in removing encroachments from around sensitive areas like hospitals. In contrast, the back side of Lulu Mall, the service lanes of Inox and Fun Republic Cinemas are specifically targeted. As soon as the evening falls, towing cranes of private contractors become active and without any prior warning, vehicles stopped for a few minutes are lifted and taken away.
This system is clearly in play in Hazratganj, the heart of the capital. In Hazratganj, vehicles are parked on the road in front of selected big establishments and banks on the main road, but no action is taken against them. On the other hand, the two-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicles parked in the quiet streets behind the Municipal Corporation’s multilevel underground parking are the first to be pulled by the crane, whereas there is no major traffic pressure in those streets. Citizens allege that such ‘soft targets’ are deliberately selected where people can easily pay the fine, while the administrative staff hesitates in laying hands on the powerful encroachers of the main roads.
The Road Transport and Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) has clear guidelines that any towing crane authorized by the Municipal Corporation must be accompanied by a uniformed Sub Inspector (SI) or Head Constable of the Traffic Police present at the spot. Making public announcement through loudspeaker before towing and issuing only no-parking challan instead of crane charges when the vehicle owner is present is fixed as per the rules. Despite this, private cranes running in the city are seen lifting vehicles secretly without the presence of policemen, which is a direct violation of the rules. When the aggrieved citizens try to contact the senior officials of the traffic police or the responsible officers of the Municipal Corporation in this regard, no clear answer is received and many times the phone is directly disconnected by the officials.
Now various business organizations and civic forums of the city have started becoming vocal against this arbitrariness going on in the name of parking. People demand that:
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Adequate official parking spaces should first be identified at all major markets and commercial centres.
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Bulldozers and legal action should be taken against the big syndicates that have permanently established occupation in front of Lalbagh, Aminabad and hospitals.
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GPS and body worn cameras should be compulsorily installed on towing vans so that there is a record of where the vehicle was picked up from and under what rules.
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The contracts of private crane agencies lifting vehicles without the presence of traffic police officers should be canceled with immediate effect.
If the government and district administration do not review this uncontrolled towing system in time, then this public anger may erupt in the form of protests on the streets in the coming days.