THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The recent ‘modernisation’ has given not only a new face to the City Traffic Police Station, but also brought in certain new traffic policies. The City Traffic cops have decided to stop the dumping of the vehicles taken into custody in connection with various cases on the station premises.
As per the new policy, the vehicles involved in non-fatal accidents are not taken into custody.
“Such vehicles are not taken into custody on the spot. The owners are asked to bring the vehicles to the traffic station for the inspection on a prefixed date. Two levels of inspections will be conducted, one by Traffic officials and the other by Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) officials,” said a senior Traffic official.
“The date for the inspection will be fixed after coordinating with the MVD officials. Following the one-day inspection, the owners can take back their vehicles,” said the official.
“The vehicles will be released to the owners to avoid creating a heap of the vehicles on the station premises,” he said.
Meanwhile, the vehicles involved in fatal accidents will be taken into custody on the spot itself.
The Traffic Police have amended the rules regarding the release of the seized vehicles. As per the new rules, these vehicles will be handed over to the relatives of the owners also. Earlier, there was strict order that the owner of the vehicles should come to take the vehicle.
“The old rule was the factor which resulted in the formation of a ‘heap of vehicles’ on the station compound. As the public have certain misconceptions regarding the legal procedure, they were hesitant to come to the station seeking their vehicles in our custody. Another reason for the piling up of vehicles was that the owners of a number of seized vehicles were NRIs,” said the official. ‘’Owing to the time and money required to travel to the state, they were not interested in approaching us to claim their vehicles,’’ he added.
As part of the modernisation, the police have cleared a lion’s share of the seized vehicles from the station compound. Most of the vehicles were given back to the owners themselves. “Now, the rusted remains of around 150 motor bikes and 15 autorickshaws are present in the station. These vehicles will be put up for auction soon. The procedures regarding the auction are in the final stage,” said the official.