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| An autorickshaw sports a BJP poster in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee |
Bhubaneswar, April 6: Police today detained around 50 autorickshaws for carrying posters of political parties without permission from various areas across the city.
While the police claimed that pasting posters in vehicles was not permitted with out prior permission from the returning officers, the autorickshaw operators alleged that police had deliberately detained the vehicles to extract penalty from them.
“According to the model code of conduct, no poll-related posters can be displayed through commercial vehicles without the permission of the returning officer,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.
The three-wheelers were later released after the police sent a prosecution report to court against the drivers.
On the other hand, some candidates alleged that police were taking a soft approach towards the autorickshaws that had put up posters of the BJD.
“A number of autorickshaws can be spotted in the city with posters of the ruling party. But, the police only target autorickshaws putting posters of other parties,” alleged Sibanand Ray, Congress candidate of Bhubaneswar (Ekamra) Assembly constituency.
Members of various autorickshaw associations alleged that the police were deliberately targeting the autorickshaw drivers to extract penalty from them.
“The authorities have never conducted any awareness drive for autorickshaws on the rules of using posters. Most of the drivers are completely unaware of the norms,” said general secretary of Bhubaneswar Autorickshaw Mahasangha Padman Kumar Samal.
The police have also expedited its drive against posters pasted on government properties at several places in the city. So far, they have registered around 50 cases under sections 427 and 290 of the Indian Penal Code. The police have so far removed more than 5,000 posters from various government properties.
On the other hand, the regional transport office has issued warrants against 31 vehicle owners for not co-operating with the administration. The warrants were issued after the vehicle owners failed to hand over their vehicles to the RTO for poll duties.
“The warrants were already sent to the police stations to arrest the vehicle owners,” said regional transport officer Lal Mohan Sethy.