Mangaluru: During a special phone-in programme on Friday arranged for the purpose of receiving complaints regarding the drug menace, Police Commissioner Vikash Kumar Vikash, to his surprise, received more calls about traffic and parking issues.
Addressing the media persons after the phone-in programme, the compol said, “It is surprising that we did not receive any calls about drugs. This is a good sign that the drug menace in the city has been brought under control, but the drive will continue. However, most of the complaints received today were related to traffic/parking in commercial complexes and on the footpaths.”
Many called questioned the police when the commercial parking lots will be cleared. A caller complained that the city police had once submitted a detailed report of parking violations to the Mangaluru City Corporation, but no progress was made in this regard as vehicles are seen parked on footpaths and other odd places. Responding to this, Commissioner Vikash said that the city police had identified close to 50 parking violations in Mangaluru and are concentrating on no-parking violations. Notices will be served to all 50 establishments, he added.
When a complaint that motorists and pedestrians were facing difficulties near the Mangaluru North police station, due to the parking of heavy vehicles on the roadside, the compol directed ACP (Traffic) Nataraj to take action to clear the same immediately and asked him to clear vehicles parked illegally in other parts of the city as well. Another caller expressed a need for barricades or other measures to reduce the speed of vehicles coming from Udupi and taking a right towards Urwa market at Kottara Chowki.
“This is a logical demand and we will discuss the same with the NHAI officials and take necessary action,” he said.
Present on the occasion were DCP (crime and traffic) Vinay A Gaonkar, DCP (law and order) Hariram Shankar, and other police officials.
