CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the State and Union governments to respond to a plea complaining about the random parking of vehicles by encroaching upon pavements and roads in Chennai. The issue pertains to T Srikrishna Bhagavat, an advocate, moving a plea seeking the Court to direct the authorities to regulate the haphazard parking of vehicles in the city.
The illegally-parked vehicles, apart from impeding the free flow of traffic, create less space for pedestrians and cause a major health hazard, providing a place for people to urinate and defecate between vehicles, stressed the petitioner. He added that the National Urban Transport Policy for India, published by the Ministry of Urban Development in April 2006, has framed a comprehensive National Parking Policy, however, the rules are not being followed.
The first Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, admitting the plea observed that the solution to the problem is in National Urban Transport Policy. The court also said that the problem exists in all cities in the country and must be addressed accordingly. The larger issue of this problem in all urban conglomeration of the States has to be addressed across, it stressed. The court then issued notices to the State and the Union of India to file a detailed report to the plea in six weeks.