First they threw out the ice cream vendors and now your car.
Parking will not be allowed on Rajpath, the road running between India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhavan, starting Monday.
The ice cream vendors were banished earlier this week.
Delhi police said the ice cream vendors shouldn’t have been there at all, as they were never allowed to do business at or around India Gate.
And, they added, the rows of cars parked on either side of the road were a traffic hazard, often causing accidents.
So out they go.
“Action should be taken for making Rajpath a no-parking zone,” read an order issued by police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal on Friday.
The order assigned no reasons. But said alternative parking areas, “behind the water channel, north-south running roads” must be prepared.
These roads are used as parking lots during the Republic Day celebrations on January 26 every year.
Meanwhile, the hawkers’ ouster has angered many and saddened others.
“It is against the government’s stated policy that the street vendors will not be removed in this manner. The civic agencies are yet to implement the policy on street vendors and declare the area as a hawking or no-hawking zone. Till that is done how can the police remove them?” said Madhu Kishwar, who works for street vendors.
{{/usCountry}}“It is against the government’s stated policy that the street vendors will not be removed in this manner. The civic agencies are yet to implement the policy on street vendors and declare the area as a hawking or no-hawking zone. Till that is done how can the police remove them?” said Madhu Kishwar, who works for street vendors.
{{/usCountry}}The MCD is yet to implement its policy on street vendors. While it has identified 16,400 hawkers who vend by roaming their licenses are yet to be issued.
“We will implement the policy as soon as licences are issued to all of them,” said Deep Mathur, Director press and Information, MCD.
The extra drive to the new parking lot won’t hurt Delhiites as much as the disappearance of the ice cream vendors.
“I went there the other day for ice cream and didn’t see a single vendor,” said Simran Kaur, a resident of R.K. Puram, adding, “they had been thrown out, and that was sad.”
An ice cream at India Gate was as much a part of Delhi as India gate itself.