lack of required action on the part of the police is preventing the district administration from resolving traffic congestion problem outside the public schools, said Dehradun district magistrate Chandresh Kumar while interacting with the media persons. However, Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Rautela denied this charge, saying they are doing everything within their brief to have the problem solved. “Who has said thatIJ Policemen are deployed along with district administrative offices, including that of the city magistrate, to solve traffic congestion outside the public schools and penalty is being imposed by the police on traffic violators,” he said while he was asked to comment on the charge of police apathy regarding the problem.
DM Kumar said that all the schools will have to provide parking facility to the students’ parents within the school campuses. Parents will not be allowed to park their vehicles right on the roads-a practice that makes the traffic crawl to the immense inconvenience of the commuters. Police should act as per the law. Dehradun being the State capital, the police have myriad responsibilities, the DM said.
Meanwhile, the students’ parents who reach the schools ten or twenty minutes before the schools close for the day to pick up their children keep on parking their vehicles outside the public schools which lead to traffic snarl. Road- users along Subhash Road who have been facing the ordeal with the parents parking vehicles outside St Joseph’s Academy had earlier opined that the administration had adopted selective approach when it comes to imposing rules on the public schools.
Observer opined that despite being slammed for their apathy on the matter, the police have chosen to remain passive. They are not imposing challans on the errant parents either for traffic norm violation. “This may be due the pressure being exerted by the politicians and the bureaucrats on them. Things remain the same on Subhash Road outside St Joseph’s Academy. Cars are found piling up after the school closes. There were some exceptions though. The apathy to impose challans on traffic violations is interesting in light of the fact that the district police deploys inspector, sub-inspectors and seven or eight policemen to ensure smooth traffic movement outside St Joseph Academy,” one observer said.
Few months ago, city magistrate GC Gunwant had forcibly opened the gate of St Joseph’s Academy (on Rajpur Road side) and allowed parents to park their vehicles within the academy campus. He had said that earlier, the academy administrator had been served notice that directed them to provide parking spaces to such vehicles in the school campus.
It should be mentioned here that State Director General of Police BS Sidhu had earlier ordered school authorities to open their campus for parking of school buses, three-wheelers, school vans and the vehicles of parents. However, curiously, the order is yet to be implemented.