Those street vendors, who do not follow directions of traffic police and continue encroachment in the parking areas of Mahatma Gandhi Road, may have to face arrest.
In a bid to make MG Road encroachment free, the traffic police and Ranchi Municipal Corporation will start a special drive within a week. The first targeted area would be stretch from Budhia Agencies to Sarjana Chowk, which is constantly swarming with street vendors selling clothes, shoes and accessories on pushcarts.
The entire stretch, where street vendors put up their stalls is designated as a parking zone, but due to the pushcarts encroached area, people end up parking vehicles on the road, thus causing traffic jams.
Traffic SP Ajit Peter Dungudng said, “We will be installing bollards with chains on the said stretch so that the street vendors do not encroach the area. This area will then be used for paid parking by RMC, as it was designated to be.”
However, once a drive starts and the street vendors do not move despite several warnings and fines, the police might resort to arresting these people.
Dungudung said, “Under Section 34 of Police Act 1861, the police has the authority to arrest such persons who cause obstruction or inconvenience on the road, without any warrant. We do not want to take such extreme steps, but if things do not improve, we will be forced to do so.”
Section 34 of Police Act 1861 clearly states that any person who, on any road or in any open place or street or thoroughfare within the limits of any town to which this section shall be specially extended by the State Government, commits any of the following offences, to the obstructions inconvenience, annoyance, risk, danger or damage of the residents or passengers shall, on conviction before a Magistrate, be liable to fine not exceeding fifty rupees, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour not exceeding eight days; and it shall be lawful for any police- officer to take into custody, without a warrant, any person who within his view commits any of such offences.
“We will first serve notice to the street vendors explaining the entire procedure and warning them of the action that can be taken. Even then if they do not move, they can be arrested,” Dungdung said.
The RMC and traffic police are in talks with companies like CCL and ICICI Bank to procure bollards from their CSR funds. City manager of RMC, Saurabh Kumar said, “The street vendors putting up carts on the said stretch are not registered with RMC and are running their business illegally, so they have to be removed. Once the stretch is cleared, we will deploy a staff on the said parking zone, for handing out parking tickets and collecting fees.”
The fees for parking zone on the stretch would be Rs 10 for two wheelers and Rs 30 for four wheelers.
Once the parking zone is freed, the traffic police will then start taking action against such vehicles which are outside the zone. “We are procuring wheel locks for the offending vehicles. If vehicle is towed away, we will charge the offender not just with the fine for wrong parking but also the towing away fees,” Traffic SP said.