The Ludhiana traffic police move to suspend for a month its drive to tow away wrongly parked vehicles in the city has led to chaos since people have been recklessly parking their four and two-wheelers on roads.
The drive was suspended on Tuesday and the results are for all to see. Haphazardly parked cars and two-wheelers can be seen on Ferozepur Road, Pakhowal Road, Mall Road, Ghumar Mandi and other areas.
City residents, who were happy with the "streamlined" traffic flow in Ludhiana due to tow-away drive, are expressing opposition to the police move to suspend it. They are posting comments on social networking sites as also the official Facebook page of traffic police.
The police had launched the drive in February last and deployed about half a dozen recovery vehicles to manage traffic chaos. The recovery vehicles had towed away four-wheelers of officers, politicians and VIPs, sending out a strong message to the public that no one would be spared for wrong parking and stationing vehicles in no-parking zones.
People had become overconscious about parking of vehicles since recovery vans used to move around in the city throughout the day. Police towed away more than 12,000 vehicles from February to September and collected Rs 25,000 as fine from violators.
{{/usCountry}}People had become overconscious about parking of vehicles since recovery vans used to move around in the city throughout the day. Police towed away more than 12,000 vehicles from February to September and collected Rs 25,000 as fine from violators.
{{/usCountry}}The success of the drive ensured that average speed of vehicles had increased from 18 km to 26 km per hour inside the city and the accident rate decreased to 67%.
The police authorities announced the suspension of the drive through newspaper advertisements and subsequently social media.
According to traffic police inspector Beant Juneja, the drive would be resumed with the procurement of hydraulic and sophisticated recovery vans, adding that police were also building new compounds for parking towed-away vehicles.
He maintained that action against wrongly parked vehicles would continue through 'challans'. He said police had challaned 18 vehicles on Wednesday for wrong parking.