MANGALURU:The city police have finally begun a serious crackdown on parking violations. About 25 vehicles were clamp-locked and fined and a wedding hall owner and administrator along with the drivers, were booked for public nuisance and obstructing public road outside a wedding hall at Hampankatta.
This comes a day after the district police booked their sixth case on building owners under IPC 283 on Sunday. “The Karnataka Police Act accords power to the police to book owners of commercial establishments obstructing traffic. IPC 283 is a very powerful tool for the police, as the Municipal Act is for the municipality,” said Superintendent of Police Ravikanthe Gowda, who has been booking building owners since four months.
However, the commissionerate limits is yet to see strong action against realtors. “We will soon start filing FIRs on building owners along with car owners,” said City Police Commissioner T R Suresh. About 40 vehicles were wheel-clamped outside a wedding hall and a mall in the city on Monday, for illegal parking. “We will hold such drives more vigorously in the future,” ACP Traffic Manjunath told The New Indian Express.
The police are expected to shoulder a tremendous responsibility in tackling the source of ‘parking issue’, a sore thumb that sticks out during police phone-in programme week after week, considering the numerous commercial establishments and halls that have flouted the norms.At present, the city has 36 licensed halls and as per sources in the health department that issues the trade license, this constitutes just a fraction of the actual number of halls.
About half the number of halls remain non-registered, including those belonging to temples, churches and schools that are used for occasions, said the sources. The onus is on both the police and the corporation, which had identified 25 illegal constructions on parking lots in commercial areas,in January.