Image courtesy: Mid-Day.com
At a time when dustbins are being used as bomb carriers and abandoned bags in local trains cause a frenzy, close to 70 abandoned vehicles on a busy main road could prove to be a huge security hazard. That's precisely the reason why KMM Prasanna, DCP, Zone IX, has written to the Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) to allot a Santacruz plot to the police stations between Bandra and Amboli, where they can shift unclaimed vehicles and those impounded in crimes and accident cases. Presently, these vehicles, many of them in a deplorable state, lie piled up in a disorderly fashion outside each police station in this zone, with no claimants coming forth.
"It's a headache," concedes Prasanna.
"Not only is the vehicle pile-up a security hazard, but it also leaves the area outside the police station looking disorderly.
Our officers don't have place to park their own vehicles because we these abandoned vehicles take up all the space," he adds.
Abandoned and sold for scrap
Vehicles that have been impounded in cases of theft, robbery, accidents or a dispute between two parties, make their way to the police station of that respective jurisdiction until their rightful owners are found, or until they are auctioned or sold for scrap by the Motor Transport Department after a number of years. It's usually the latter. "When a vehicle is brought here, what usually happens is that the owner files his/her insurance claim and gets the money. He/she doesn't care about the vehicle anymore; neither does the insurance company, because the claim has been struck off. But we're obliged to keep the vehicle here, and that's how the pile-up increases," explains Prakash George, Senior PI, Bandra police station.
Manoj Pote, Senior PI, Khar police station, echoes George's sentiment: "It's a huge problem. Hundreds of vehicles are lying outside the police stations for years together. In the absence of claimants, we're obliged to keep the vehicles in the vicinity of the police station for security."
In cases of accidents, the vehicle owners are allowed to file for repossession of the vehicle in the sessions court. This, if they give an undertaking to the effect that they will produce it in court as evidence when required during the case hearing.
Residents too are pushing the police force to find a solution to the abandoned cars. "They are taking up valuable road and footpath space. We have spoken to the police during our mohalla committee meetings," says Khar Residents Association (KRA) Managing Trustee Anandini Thakoor.
She has been in constant touch with both, Bandra and Khar police stations to sort out this vehicle pile-up. "They can't do much about it either if the law demands that they be responsible for the security of these vehicles until they are claimed."
One look at the vicinity of Khar police station and Thakoor's concerns are understandable. In Pote's own words, "Vehicles lying here like this can be misused. We're glad that we'll get a space to keep them."
Once the ground is allotted and these vehicles shifted, Prasanna says plans are afoot to post two police constables at the plot to look after the vehicles. They also hope to install CCTV cameras to prevent any untoward incidents.