City Patrol Unit (CPU) which was formed to penalise traffic violators appears to be apathetic to the problems caused by vehicles parked improperly by parents of students studying in some prominent public schools.
Due to political and bureaucratic pressures, this unit has not imposed challans on those who park their vehicles on the Subhash Road outside St Joseph's Academy daily after school hours. Such illegally parked vehicles cause daily traffic jams on various roads which causes much inconvenience to road users. The State Director General of Police BS Sidhu had also recently ordered school authorities to open their campus for parking of school bus, three-wheelers, school vans and vehicles of parents but the school authorities have not implemented his order so far.
Observers opine that police seem to adopt selective approach when it comes to enforcing regulations on public schools. PHQ police officers, Secretariat officers and employees, road users on Subhash Road and Rajpur Road (outside St Joseph's Academy) can be witnessed facing inconvenience as vehicles of parents are parked outside the school causing traffic congestion there but police seem to be ignoring this problem.
A policeman posted at this site said that following the direction of senior police officers, district police deploys inspector, sub-inspectors and seven or eight policemen to regulate the traffic outside St Joseph's Academy daily. On this road the district police does not deploy CPU units. “Had this unit been deployed here daily, there would not be traffic congestion outside the school,” added the cop wanting to remain anonymous.
A secretariat employee said, “Usually parents reach the school ten or twenty minutes before the school closing time to pick up their children. Instead of using light vehicles like two wheelers, most parents use four wheelers which occupy more space on the road. Had school provided parking space inside the campus as directed by the DGP, traffic congestion might not be witnessed outside the school.”
The CPU was formed to penalise traffic violators by the police but this unit has not been deployed regularly outside St Joseph's Academy. CO Traffic Arun Pandey said that CPU was formed to enforce traffic regulations in the state capital and its members have been directed to impose challan under Motor Vehicle (MV) Act for traffic violations. “Earlier, CPU had launched drive in school areas and imposed penalty on those who had parked improperly on the roads. Such a campaign will be launched again in the city. The school authorities should implement DGP Sidhu’s direction ensuring parking arrangement for school bus, three-wheelers, school vans and vehicles of parents within the campus,” he added.