Unmanned barricades an inconvenience to residents: Delhi HC

The court also sought the stand of the Centre, Delhi government and the Delhi Police on the menace caused by these obstructions across the city roads after converting a letter written by Om Prakash Goel, who called himself the President of Delhi Pradeshik Aggarwal Sammelan, into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL)

Unmanned barricades serve no purpose except causing inconvenience to the residents, the Delhi high court observed on Tuesday, initiating a suo motu petition, and asked the Delhi Police to explain if there is a protocol regarding placement of barriers on roads.

The high court issued notices to Union home affairs ministry (MHA), the Delhi government, Delhi Police commissioner and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), and posted the matter for further hearing on April 13. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“….these unmanned blockades on roads prima facie serve no purpose and indeed cause inconvenience and harassment to the public at large. Such barricades have also been used to set up kiosks and for parking vehicles,” a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said.

The court also sought the stand of the Centre, Delhi government and the Delhi Police on the menace caused by these obstructions across the city roads after converting a letter written by Om Prakash Goel, who called himself the President of Delhi Pradeshik Aggarwal Sammelan, into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

In his letter, Goel mentioned places such as Kalkaji, Gandhi Nagar and CR Park areas where traffic snarls were reported due to unmanned barricades.

The high court issued notices to Union home affairs ministry (MHA), the Delhi government, Delhi Police commissioner and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), and posted the matter for further hearing on April 13. The court asked all the authorities to file their respective status reports before the next date of hearing.

In response to a similar petition filed by another NGO in October last year, the Delhi Police filed a status report in December and defended installing barricades on city roads saying the national capital has several open border points and picketing helps preventing criminals from escaping to other states. It also added that barricades are placed mostly during night or “as and when required”. It also added that barricades are placed mostly during night or for the purpose of pickets for checking. The police said at many places barriers are placed in consultation with RWAs to curb local crime and manage traffic on the colony roads.

The petition filed by Jan Sewa Welfare Society said one of the reasons for huge traffic snarls in the city is the unnecessary barricading of roads of Delhi Police.

On October 27, the court had issued notices to stakeholders but there has not been any effective hearing in the matter since then. The Jan Sewa plea will come up for hearing on March 15.

Nitin Sagar, a commuter in south Delhi said barricades are deployed regularly under the Lajpat Nagar Metro flyover. “One rarely sees a policeman deployed at the barriers beneath the flyover. It just causes traffic jams and wastage of fuel worth crores as vehicles get stuck at this point,” he said.

Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning in the School of Planning and Architecture, said barricades are used by police for two purposes--security checks and diversion of traffic. “The barricades for security checks should be deployed only under specific conditions, but it cannot be a routine practice. Many a times, we also observe that barricades are used to limit the number of lanes which leads to build up of congestion. The technical knowledge of personnel regarding queue lengths and release time needs to be developed. In several cases, it has been seen that unmanned barricades serve no purpose except blocking the traffic movement. SOPs regarding placement of barriers should be reviewed,” he said.

S Velmurugan, chief scientist, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said the security situation in Delhi is unique and deployment of barriers for picket points can be permitted, but unmanned traffic barriers for simple traffic diversions simply increase the congestion manifold. He added that the commuters should be provided information in advance before placing barricades (for the purpose of traffic management).