NEW DELHI: Soon, click a picture of car parked in a non-parking area and get `100 as reward. Union Transport Ministry is mulling to introduce a scheme of rewarding people for sending pictures of defaulters especially those parking vehicles in non-parking zone.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has held discussions with his cabinet colleague and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on this and both ministries are working out modalities.
“Roads have become parking lots in all cities as cars are parked on roads posing major traffic jam. I am thinking of bringing a scheme where we invite people to click pictures of cars parked in non-parking areas and traffic police will issue challans of `1000. Of the money collected, the person who has posted the picture will get `100 as reward,” Nitin Gadkari said.
When asked if it’s a possible solution, Gadkari said that the idea would be floated and all municipalities, offices and residential societies asked to get parking space.
“After one year we will start implementing it and the onus will be on car owner to look for parking space to park vehicle. We don’t even have the habit of parking at designated space and look for free spaces like roads.”
The government has also proposed that it may allow registration of vehicles only after production of parking space availability certificate to the authorities. Naidu had last month said that no vehicle would be registered without adequate parking space availability. Many cities in Western nations already have a similar system on registering only vehicles that have a valid parking license.
The policy, according to experts, would significantly help in reducing congestion in residential areas. Over 2 million units of cars were sold in India in the year 2015, a record high from the previous years numbers of 1.8 million.
Gadkari also said that road accidents were on the rise and steps were being taken by the government to bring them down considerably. He also hoped that the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2016, that has been with Parliament committee, would be passed soon.