Locking Wheels at Milagres Creates Tense Situation, Public Block Road and Protest

Locking Wheels at Milagres Creates Tense Situation, Public Block Road and Protest

Mangaluru: Every day we face traffic jams in our city mostly due to non-compliance of the traffic rules. We can see vehicles being parked on the roads, footpaths or wherever there is a little place. It is because the law is not strict and the penalty is very less. Recently DCP crime and traffic Uma Prashanth, under ‘Traffic Management and Road Safety Week’, has taken strict measures to lock the wheels of any vehicles being parked unlawfully obstructing the free movement of vehicles and creating inconvenience to the other road users. Accordingly, the city traffic police have started a drive to lock such vehicles and send a strong message to the violators of traffic rules.

On July 15, a similar incident happened at Milagres when there were two marriage functions in two of the marriage halls in the area. Guests who had come to attend the marriage function had parked their vehicles on the side of the road. When they returned from the function they found the wheels of their vehicles being locked. The wheels of about 38 Vehicles were locked by the traffic police.

Instead of waiting for the traffic police to come and release the lock the car owners along with some of the guests gathered and protested blocking the road for over thirty minutes. When the police from Sagar Kavach requested the agitators to allow the vehicles to move, they demanded that the traffic police come and unlock the wheel locks.

ACP Manjunath was informed of the situation and the traffic police arrived at the spot. The crowd gheraoed the police and demanded to release the locks. The police asked the protesters to make way for the vehicles and cleared the traffic. After the police started to unlock the wheels, the protesters dispersed from the spot.

Speaking to mangalorean.com BJP leader Rajgopal Rai said, “We had parked our vehicles on the side of the road in front of the hotel to attend a function. After the function when We found the wheel of our vehicle locked, I called the traffic police but I got the reply saying, “we cannot come till 6:00 pm”. There isn’t any no parking sign on this road, how will the vehicle owners know whether this is a no parking area? We don’t mind in paying the penalty, but our request is if the police lock the wheels, let they be available to release it. Since the police did not respond positively when we call them, we thought of blocking the road, until the police come to the spot.”

The ASI Traffic said, “Our intention is not to trouble the public. Yesterday we had a meeting with all the marriage hall owners in the city and informed them about the traffic problems in the city. People should understand the impact of parking their vehicles in certain places. Even today when we were locking the wheels of the illegally parked vehicles an ambulance had to go on the wrong side due to the restricted movement of traffic on the road. We want to see a free movement of vehicles in the city and we are doing our best. The wheel locking drive is intended to send a message across and make the public understand the importance of parking their vehicles only in designated places meant for parking. The hall owners also say that they are providing parking space but those who come for the functions park the vehicle on the road.”

Speaking to mangalorean.com DCP Crime and Traffic Uma Prashanth said, “When people attend functions they should park their vehicles inside the premises or designated parking spaces. We cannot install “No Parking” signboards within the city, the vehicle owners should have concern towards other road users. We will take action against whoever responsible for obstructing the free movement of vehicles and creating inconvenience for other road users in the city.”

Traffic was held up for more than 30 minutes on the Falnir road near Motimal.