JAMMU: The well intentioned drive against wrong parking, involving pasting of Challans on the windscreens of vehicles, has hit a huge controversy with commoners complaining of discrimination and highhandedness.
While wrongly parked private car owners get punitive signals on their wind screens, similarly placed government vehicles and those of elite mock at the system raising question mark over the integrity of traffic managers. More provocative is the stationing of passenger carriers at the whims and fancies of drivers, who not only enjoy impunity for not wearing uniforms and stretching safety belts but also stationing their vehicles in the midst of congested roads, leading to frequent traffic jams.
Towing away the wrongly parked vehicles and pasting of Challans on windscreens in the City of Temples is in vogue these days. Traffic Police squads are acting as busy bees these days clearing the city roads of vehicles which are parked erroneously. It is quite painful for the citizens of Jammu to shell out penalty of minimum Rs. 500 for getting their wrongly parked vehicles released, as wrong parking is a culpable offence. On the other hand, without giving a jiffy of thought, arrogant officials steering the vehicles of police and other government departments showing utter defiance and personal fiefdom dare to park the blue numbered vehicles at their whims and fancies, thus testing nerves of Men in Blues.
As far as traffic cops are concerned, the residents say that they keep hunting for commoners’ vehicles to fill coffers of government and to show achievement of targets, ignoring the all time hit idiom, ‘Charity begins at home’. Annoyed over proactive Traffic Police, the people complain of harassment and accuse the law enforcing agencies of looking to other side when it comes to government vehicles or passenger transport. “Traffic Police Challans vehicles on their own choice without even demarcating parking slots on road sides for the shoppers”, several private car owners complained. They asked whether Traffic Police has given some kind of immunity to such of the officials and blue eyed segment of vehicle operators for breaking the law for obvious reasons. “Cops have no right to force Challan on commoners when they are allowing creamy layer and officials to park their vehicles at places of their choice”, they said in acerbically and questioned, “Is parking at ‘No Parking’ culpable in absence of proper parking slots?” The growing number of cars and paucity of parking slots are Jammu’s biggest urban nightmare. It has also led to a host of other problems including traffic congestion, encroachments, no walking place, quarrels, road rages, etc.
“It is nearly impossible to find parking spaces in Jammu, as the city drastically lacks in providing adequate parking slots. With the unprecedented growth of vehicles in Jammu, the space available for parking has virtually squeezed and people are often victimised by way of towing their vehicles by law enforcing agencies”, some of the road users stated, adding that the prejudice shown by traffic cops in selectively impounding Challans raises eyebrows and gives a cue that everything is not right here.
The lacunae and responsibility of the haphazard management of affairs in this regard solely depends on Jammu’s sluggish Traffic Police Department and the apathetic civic authorities.