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Drive Against Illegal Parking: Police refuse to cut slack for ‘VIPs’; vehicle owners asked to pay full challan amount
According to senior police officials, some of the vehicle owners even tried to create a ruckus but they soon realised that an FIR would be lodged against them if they misbehaved with the staff.
LUCKNOW Day 1 of the drive against illegally parked vehicles in Lucknow was pretty much what senior police officials had anticipated. As cranes lifted vehicles that were parked in no-parking zones, the vehicle owners started making calls to their politician friends, who they hoped would pressure the cops into releasing the vehicle.
Soon, the mobile phones of senior police authorities also started ringing. As expected, influential politicians and even a few ministers were calling them to cut a slack for their friends. However, the senior cops refused to oblige and told them that vehicles will only be released once the owners pay the full challan amount -- ₹1,100.
According to senior police officials, some of the vehicle owners even tried to create a ruckus but they soon realised that an FIR would be lodged against them if they misbehaved with the staff.
As many as 53 vehicles parked illegally on the road in front of Vidhan Bhawan, the BJP office, and the secretariat were picked up by cranes on Monday. A three-wheeler, which was blocking the movement of traffic, was also picked up by a crane, said DCP Traffic Ashish Srivastava.
He added, “Most of the vehicles belonged to influential people who parked them wrongly on the road, blocking the movement of traffic. Today (Monday), the drive started at just three points but from Tuesday, the number of challans would go up when cranes start operating at all the no-parking zones.
City’s traffic police unit was gearing up to rid the state capital of the menace of haphazardly parked vehicles, causing road congestion for the last two months.
It is pertinent to mention here that traffic police had declared 11 main roads of the city as no-parking zones. Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order), Upendra Aggarwal, is personally monitoring the drive against wrongly parked vehicles in the city.
Besides, challans were issued against 536 people for not wearing helmets, 25 two-wheelers were fined for triple riding, 51 vehicle owners faced challan for not wearing seat belts, 39 vehicles were challaned for driving without a license, 46 people were challaned for driving vehicles without a pollution certificate, one vehicle was challaned for driving on the wrong side, and 335 vehicles were challaned for parking in no-parking zones.
