Bhubaneswar, Sept. 21: Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation (BMC) and city police don’t seem to see eye to eye on the issue of illegal parking lots that have sprung up in several areas of the capital.
While BMC officials say non-cooperation of the cops have worsened the situation, the police accuse the civic bosses of not doing their bit.
Going a step ahead, the BMC said the police did not act in the matter expected even though the civic body had sought its cooperation in a letter. A claim, the police have since refuted.
“We had approached the police to curb illegal parking. We even wrote a letter but nothing has been done so far,” said BMC secretary Anil Kumar Pattnaik.
He said the problem of illegal parking was getting increasingly worse with each passing day.
The BMC officials claimed that on May 18 they had forwarded the letter to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) and inspectors in-charge of the police stations in question.
Police officers, however, claimed that no such letter had reached them.
“We have not received any letter regarding illegal parking lots,” said a senior police officer at the Capital police station.
“The BMC authorities must provide parking lots in major business areas to curb illegal parking,” said a senior police officer of the traffic wing.
He sought to know how many times had the BMC authorities lodged FIRs regarding illegal parking.
Illegal parking lots were flourishing near the Capital Police Station, Kasturba Nari Mahal, Unit I, between Jayadev Bhavan and Indira Gandhi Park and one near Janata Maidan at Chandrasekharpur.
However, the lack of co-ordination between the two is adding to commuters’ woes.
“It’s hard to differentiate between legal and illegal parking lots as people managing them issue similar tickets,” said Sudhansu Patra, a local resident.
In July, Kharavela Nagar police nabbed three persons for running illegal parking lots near a shopping mall at Satya Nagar while the Capital police arrested two others after a complaint by the mayor.
However, DCP Nitinjeet Singh said the police department was ill-equipped to deal with illegal parking.
“We do not have the necessary manpower and infrastructure to carry out frequent raids on illegal parking lots,” he said.
