PMC union cries foul

“The traffic police are turning a blind eye to six-seaters in no parking zone while we the union people have to face police vehicle lifters,” an irate union member told The Indian Express. The union never wanted to indulge in rights of six-seater operators, but traffic police should either follow their own dictates no parking or should scrap their own no parking zones, he added.

The entire Mangala Karandikar Road, running parallel to the Nava Pul located above, in front of the union office is a no-parking zone where scores of six -seaters beeline to take passengers at any given hour of the day. The six -seater operators have shared both the sides of the road, as one is used by operators from Sangvi, Wakad, Pashan, Aundh and other western suburbs while the other end is used by the operators plying mainly to eastern and southeastern suburbs like Yerwada and Kondhwa.

No actions are taken against these gross violation of no parking rules, though a traffic cop is posted at the PMC bus terminus end of the road while the no parking rules are religiously adhered to in case of the union members, the PMKU man rued. “Once we even threatened to resort to a rasta-roko when two-wheelers of some of our members parked in front of the office were lifted, ignoring a six-seater snarl,” he said.

In a letter to the union, assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Prakash Ashtekar said on December 2, last year, that the city traffic police fined as many as 13 six-seater operators for violation of no-parking rules at the union office, recovering Rs 1250 from them. Ashtekar had assured union general secretary A D Bhosale that similar actions would be taken in the future too.