PUNE, June 1: The city-based Rajshree Parmar Memorial Foundation has urged Chief Minister Manohar Joshi to formulate a policy and initiate stringent measures to check the mushrooming of statues and fountains at busy junctions in all major cities and towns of Maharashtra.In a memorandum, foundation chairman and managing trustee Chandmal Parmar has sought to draw the chief minister's attention to the serious traffic hazard posed by the statues and beautified junctions erected in the middle of city roads.Welcoming the chief minister's recent pronouncement that the state government would soon frame rules on erection of statues, Parmar has made some suggestions based upon the studies conducted by his foundation dedicated to spreading traffic awareness.The foundation has strongly recommended to the chief minister that local self-governments and police authorities be stripped of the powers to sanction installation of statues and beautification of chowks. This right should be the exclusive privilege of the state Urban Development Department. Also, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the office of the state Inspector General of Police (traffic) should be made mandatory.Underlining the need to take up this issue on priority, Parmar referred to the growing number of vehicles in major cities. According to him, there are about 7.86 lakh vehicles in Mumbai and 7.75 lakh in Pune. The total vehicular population of the state stands at about 30 lakh and according to government estimates, is likely to cross the 50 lakh mark by the year 2000.This, he said was a matter of serious concern, particularly when the vehicular population had grown at an alarming rate of 40 per cent during the past 40 years while the corresponding growth of roads in length was a mere five per cent.The foundation observed that elected representatives of all parties, political leaders and workers were responsible for this sorry state of affairs. They pressurise local bodies to install statues at every nook and corner without giving a thought to traffic and law and order, it held.The foundation had sought to shift certain statues which obstructed the smooth flow of traffic in Pune in 1993. These included the Keshavrao Jedhe statue at Swargate junction, the Vasantdada Patil statue at Abhinav College junction and the Kakasaheb Gadgil statue opposite Shaniwarwada. However, the PMC and the Police Commissionerate kept postponing the issue, rued Parmar.State IGP (traffic) P S Pasricha had taken cognisance of the foundation's efforts and had issued instructions to the Pune police on the shifting of these statues on priority. But, so far, nothing has been done, the memorandum said.
