Footpath chowkies face flak

MUMBAI, May 12: Police chowkies which have come up on pavements are causing inconvenience to people, said Sardar Tara Singh, chairman of th...

MUMBAI, May 12: Police chowkies which have come up on pavements are causing inconvenience to people, said Sardar Tara Singh, chairman of the standing committee of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. He urged the additional municipal commissioner to take action against these constructions.

The issue was raised in the committee meeting by Yakub Memon of Samajwadi Party. He revealed that three such chowkies had come up in the middle of the road in C-ward recently. He added that complaints to the concerned ward officer did not help adding that the ward officer instead of demolishing the chowky demolished a tea- stall. He was supported by K A Bastiwala and and Ravindra Pawar, both from the Congress. Bastiwala complained that a police chowky was constructed at Santa Cruz E just to harass a shop-keeper.

Anyway, the chowky was locked for the last six years, he added. Nandu Satam of the Shiv Sena said the police chowkies would ensure safety of the people since many had come up after the riots. 8220;In fact all the corporators should co-operate with the police force.8221;

However, Singh said that the issue of chowkies coming up without the permission of the corporation was very serious. He also said it was wrong to construct police chowkies on foot-paths. Later, additional municipal commissioner Sharwaree Gokhale informed the committee that permission for constructing a police chowky was necessary. The committee members also suggested that a trust should be formed to manage the poor box fund8217; in hospitals.

A similar notice of motion was raised by the late Ramdas Naik way back in 1988 but it was referred back twice.

Corporators, including Rajesh Sharma BJP, Ravindra Pawar and Digambar Khandargar both Shiv Sena, wanted to know how the fund was used. The fund consists of donation by the people.

Bastiwala requested that corporators should also be allowed to use their fund in the poor box fund. Gokhale informed that over Rs one crore was collected in various civic hospitals through poor box fund.