‘Clamping’ diktat ties up Mumbaikars in knots

A new experiment announced by freshly appointed Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey explores the possibility of scrapping the practice of towing away illegally parked vehicles. As novel as it may sound, activists are not exactly thrilled about it.

Pandey took charge of his new posting on February 28 this year, and two days later posted a tweet from his official Twitter handle saying that towing of errant vehicles would be suspended for a week on an experimental basis. The idea was to explore the feasibility of implementing the move on a long-term basis as well as to invite feedback from citizens on the same.

During this one-week period, the Mumbai Traffic Police will be putting clamps on vehicles found to be violating parking related rules. Advocate Godfrey Pimenta, who heads the Watchdog Foundation, said that the very first and basic problem with the move is that the Police Commissioner does not have the power to make such a change.

“The towing of vehicles is an action prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Act, which is a central government Act. The traffic police has to take action as per the provisions of the Act, and while the state government might take a decision on some of its implementations, an officer cannot randomly start or stop a practice prescribed by it,” Pimenta said. He added that parking is an issue that is fast becoming a nightmare in Mumbai and needs to be addressed on a war footing.

“Offline classes were started in schools recently and immediately, the streets were lined with illegally parked cars when parents were dropping or picking up their children to and from school, and this is just one example. There is need to be proper solutions rather than half-hearted measures for this,” said Pimenta.

Activist Anil Galgali added that while the move will have no long-term impact, and instead, clamping vehicles instead of towing them away will only lead to more traffic jams.

“There has never been any proper arrangement for parking in Mumbai, which is the actual need of the hour. If you go to establishments like the Mumbai Police headquarters or the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, you won’t find space to park. People who don’t have enough parking space are buying multiple vehicles and on top of that, the roads in the city are really bad. The authorities would do well do designate affordable or free parking in open spaces for the common man,” Galgali said.

He cited the example of Thane City, where public parking lots are being set up for heavy vehicles coming in from ports to be parked during restricted hours.

The trend of Police Commissioners announcing new measures as soon as they take over is hardly a new one, although some of these initiatives have had long term and welcome results.

When retired Director General Rakesh Maria took over as the Mumbai police chief in 2014, he had issued instructions to all personnel to not indulge in “moral policing” and focus on maintaining law and order instead. The orders came at a time when the police force was facing heavy criticism for going after couples for being in “intimate” positions.

Maria was succeeded by Ahmed Javed in 2016, and the former top cop started the Mumbai Police’s Twitter account. The Twitter handle is one of the most active ones today, with over 5 million followers.

Similarly, when current Deputy National Security Advisor Datta Padsalgikar became the Mumbai Police Commissioner in 2016, after Javed’s retirement, one of the practices he started was to send personally signed letters to families of deceased police personnel. The letters contained all information about the procedure that the family members had to follow to avail the benefits they were entitled to, and the idea was appreciated by all.

Padsalgikar’s other legacy is the much-lauded 8-hour shift for police station personnel. While policemen earlier had 12-hour shifts which would sometimes extend to as much as 16 hours, Padsalgikar divided the working time into three shifts of eight hours each, sealing his place in the hearts of his men.

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)