Five days after taking charge as the Mumbai Police Commissioner, Sanjay Pandey Saturday through his official Twitter handle announced that the force will stop towing vehicles across the city for a week.
The traffic authorities believe that the decision to start such a pilot project could be on the backdrop of numerous complaints which he may have received after he shared his phone number on social media.
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At 8.47 am Saturday, Pandey on his official Twitter handle @CPMumbaiPolice informed the citizens, “Dear Mumbaikars I am over whelmed with your response. As a first we plan to stop towing of vehicles. Experimental to start with and final if you comply. Let me know what you think.”
Sources in the traffic department revealed that, however, there has not been any written order issued to them but the project of not towing vehicles has started from Saturday.
“We received the directives to not tow any vehicle for a week on our WhatsApp group. We will be following this order only for seven days and the final decision to continue shall be taken after that,” said an officer.
Hours after the announcement, Pandey’s tweet went viral and people responded to him with queries and suggestions. A Twitter user asked, “Will the offenders be taken to court for No-Parking offence going forward as mentioned on MumTrafficApp?” To which, the Commissioner responded, “We will consider only hope people do comply.”
The announcement has also raised concerns among the traffic authorities. “As per the directions, we are only supposed to fine them through our e-challan system and not tow the vehicle. But what are we supposed to do when there is a VIP movement on the same road where these vehicles are parked illegally? Because, normally, we get towing vans and take them to our traffic division through which we ensure there is no threat to the VIP,” said an officer.
Meanwhile, some officials also believe that this move will help them in creating traffic awareness among the motorists as the drivers on their own will stop parking vehicles on no parking zones or inside narrow lanes.
Another Twitter user, Vikrant Joshi, replied to the Commissioner’s tweet saying, “I think even if traffic police helps to not allow any car to park on main roads, half of mumbai problems will be over. No parking on roads. Use lanes, by lanes, BMC /MMRDA parkings.”
Pandey in response appreciated his suggestion and said, “I think this is great idea will try and ensure.”
