Drive against wrong parking

SURAT, Sept 2: Additional police commissioner H P Singh, in a directive issued here, has warned vehicle owners against parking vehicles outside parking zones, stating that legal action will be initiated against those who park vehicles haphazardly. The step, a police department release said, has been taken to ensure smooth flow of traffic in the city.

Singh, who is also in charge of traffic, issued the directive at a Road Safety Council meeting here. He said that the police and RTO officials will soon begin another round of intensive vehicle-checking shortly. It may be recalled that earlier drives by the police against erring vehicles have met with stiff resistance, particularly from rickshaw drivers.

The drive this time will concentrate on vehicles carrying more passengers than permitted, overloaded vehicles, and those with fancy head lights and high intensity lamps, the release stated. The additional police commissioner said that vehicles sporting more than the permitted lights would be dealt with severely during the drive.

Also speaking at the meeting, Regional Transport Officer K M Patel said that the department had collected Rs 3.81 lakhs in fines from April to July from erring vehicle drivers. He added that overloaded vehicles, luxury buses, fuel adulterers and rickshaws were the main offenders during this period, from whom fines had been recovered.