Major Crackdown On Illegal Parking; RTO Means Business!!
In a major crackdown on illegal parking to curb traffic jams, the RTO did a fantastic job and has penalized as many as 6,789 drivers in a short span of just 2 months and 9 days! In a nutshell, in 65 days the RTO has collected Rs. 13.57 lacs as fines from errant drivers for parking their vehicles illegally and causing traffic jams.
Mulund is already facing a traffic mess due to the increase in vehicles. To add to this, the Metro work has escalated traffic woes. The traffic on LBS Marg is badly hit. In addition, to rub salt on the wounds,the illegal parking by trucks, tempos and heavy vehicles occupying a major part of the road has made the traffic jam issue serious. Hence, to teach a lesson to errant drivers, the RTO tightened the screws on the offenders and has carried a massive crackdown.
The prime culprits of the traffic mess are generally the auto drivers because during the afternoon many take a lunch break. However, instead of parking their vehicles lawfully inside parking zones, most of them do not obey the RTO laws and park their autos haphazardly on roads and go home for a nap. This causes a major traffic mess. According to the RTO, from January 2019 till March 8, RTO has penalized 2,127 auto drivers. In January (820), February (1090) and till March 8 (217)
Besides auto drivers, the RTO penalized 6,789 other errant drivers for parking at the wrong place. According to RTO data, in January (1477), February (4201) till March 8 (111) were fined.
It may be noted that the Bombay High Court has urged the state government to tighten the screws on illegal parking and scrapped vehicles (khataras) lying abandoned on roads in order to prevent the traffic mess due to the ongoing Metro work. In fact, the High Court has asked RTO to charge Rs. 50 per hour for the khataras and charge Rs. 200 for towing of the vehicles under the Motor Vehicles Act (Section 201).
