After a stern rebuke from Jharkhand High Court, calling for clearing any hindrance to flow of traffic on Mahatma Gandhi Road, Ranchi traffic police has pulled up its socks to clear street side vendors from State capital’s main artery.
Hearing a plea on Wednesday regarding traffic logjams in Main Road due to unauthorised hawkers and wrongly parked vehicles, a bench of Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice S Chandrashekhar strictly directed Ranchi police to clear the stretch with help from Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC).
“As per instructions from the High Court, we are supposed to give a grace period of seven days to the vendors, asking them to vacate Main Road. This will be propagated through the channels of media as soon as the written order from court comes before me. Those who still fail to comply with the orders after the grace period expires, we either will seize their merchandise or take lawful action mandated by law,” stated Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Manoj Ratan Chothe.
The previous excuses of aggressive protests from street vendors and absence of rehabilitation facilities employed to cushion the blow in terms of removing the footpath business that have mushroomed along the length of Main Road will not be entertained either, Jharkhand High Court has established clearly.
Accusations against Ranchi police, blaming police personnel of allowing street vendors to set shop in lieu of bribes have also been taken seriously by the Court. Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi and the Traffic SP have been instructed to be present for the next hearing to offer their answers regarding the allegations.
Naming RMC equally guilty for the altercation commuters have to face on Main Road, the High Court has instructed the urban local body to join hands with Ranchi traffic police to find a solution to the matter.
We will provide logistics support if such demands come from the traffic police departments, stated Additional Municipal Commissioner Bidya Nand Sharma Pankaj. “As per the newly formed Town Vending Act, we are close to forming a new Town Vending Committee to look after the rehabilitation and regularisation of the street vendors in the various vending zones earmarked across the city. Surveys to identify legitimate street vendors is also going on in full swing,” he further added.
After clearing Main Road, authorities have been instructed to shift their focus to other major streets of the city too. To help on this his front, another initiative to lessen the burden on city streets, colour coding auto-rickshaws, will also be brought to effect in totality.
“With Sarhul and Ramnavmi round the corner, we are a hard-pressed to execute traffic plans as they are. A drive to take auto-rickshaws not painted according to their permits will be kicked off as soon as we have the required manpower back. As of now, we are consulting the District and Regional Transport Offices in this regard,” Chothe said.