Desperate remedies: Police get tough on illegal parking on The Mall

Tyres punctured on dozens of vehicles parked on Kutchery Road.


Ali Usman July 06, 2011

LAHORE:


Dozens of students and visitors to Government College University and Punjab University’s Old Campus found the tyres of their cars or motorbikes had been punctured by policemen because their vehicles were parked illegally on Kutchery Road on Wednesday.


Many people suspected when they saw their deflated tyres that someone was playing a prank on them, until they noticed that all the vehicles parked on the road from the GCU main gate to the PU Oriental College gate had been targeted.

Similar punitive action was taken against cars and bikes parked outside the Education Department, Labour and Human Resources Department and Agriculture Department a day earlier.

However, those who were affected by Wednesday’s action on Kutchery Road said that there had been no advance warning that the police were about to step up the penalty for illegal parking in such a way.

“This is ridiculous. It’s as if they have signed a contract with some tyre shop,” said a GCU faculty member, who was seeing off a guest at the gate, only to find that his car tyres had been punctured.

“If the police wanted to vacate this place they should have informed the institutions first. Most of those parked here are visitors and students. Puncturing all four tyres is not a solution,” he added,

Many affected people pushed their cars onto the road and ended up holding up other traffic, resulting in a jam. “The whole exercise was presumably meant to improve the flow of traffic on this road, but the way it has been done has added to the problem,” said Jawad Ahmad, a GCU student whose bike’s tyres was punctured.

A GCU spokesman said that the police had not told the administration or students that they could not park there. “It would have been better to inform all the institutions situated on this road that they should ask their visitors not to park outside,” he said.

An official at the SSP (Operations) office said that a drive had been launched to stop unauthorised parking on The Mall, as handing out illegal parking tickets had not proved effective. “Strong action is needed so people get the message not to park their cars in those places again,” he said.

“We didn’t puncture all four tyres of cars,” he said. “Maybe in some cases, but only where the vehicles were parked very badly. Parking vehicles at such places is also a security risk.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Sid | 12 years ago | Reply Very very bad joke. Jungle ka qanoon.
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