BHUBANESWAR: In a fresh drive to remove abandoned vehicles, carts (thelas) from the city roads and streets, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to issue notice to the owners asking them to pick up the junked carriages within a week, failing which they will be auctioned off.
BMC Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange has asked officials concerned to take appropriate measures in this regard. He said the owner will be given a week’s time to remove his/her abandoned vehicle or object from public place. If the person concerned fails to comply with the notice, the vehicle or object will be picked up by the civic body and auctioned off.
An official of BMC said a drive will be launched soon to identify such vehicles, carts, wooden thelas, rickshaws and other objects. Their owners will also be identified and issued notice.In case the individual is not identified, notice will be pasted on the vehicle/object asking the owners to remove them from the site within the given time.
The civic body will keep photograph of such site notice as proof, while a designated place will be identified in each zone of the city where the seized items will be kept for their auction through the engineering section of the BMC.The civic body may go for auction of the seized vehicles and objects online through MSTC, officials said.
Notably, illegal parking of abandoned vehicles, carts and thelas as well as tyres and other objects such as wood on road, streets, footpath and drains in the city has become a nuisance for the public as well as sanitation workers while carrying out drainage desiltation and day-to-day cleaning activity. There has been drives in the past to remove such vehicles and objects through awareness campaigns, but people continued to flout the norm forcing the civic body to come up with strict measures, BMC officials said.