Indian Express: Mumbai: Thursday, January 29, 2015.
Observing
that walking on footpaths is the right of citizens and it is being taken away
by car owners, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the
state government on issues relating to haphazard parking and increasing number
of vehicular traffic in Mumbai.
Justices N H
Patil and A S Gadkari were hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by
Janhit Manch seeking regulation of traffic in Mumbai in view of increasing
number of vehicles and haphazard parking of vehicles causing nuisance to public
at large.
While
observing that restricting the sale of cars could not be done without
understanding the law, the court suggested, “If a person is allowed to purchase
a car, he or she must give assurance about providing parking space before the
vehicle is registered.”
“A person can
buy 50 cars. It is their right to do so but you cannot allow them to park on
the road. Have you thought what your 5-year plan is?” the HC asked.
The state
government’s advocate J S Saluja stated that they had been towing away vehicles
which were not parked in the parking zone and collected Rs 25 crore as fine in
the past five years.
“Charging
revenue is not the solution. What happens to the ordinary people? They must
have safe roads and footpaths. Walking on footpaths is the right of the
citizens which is being taken away by car owners,” the HC said.
Mumbai has
the worst traffic management with the city planners pointing at a scenario with
the roads blocked with double lane parking. Recently another group has
approached courts over hike of parking fare with the BMC revising fares.
Emphasising
on the practices followed by other countries, the HC said that pedestrians were
looked at with a lot of respect abroad but in India, a person with a car was
given that respect.
“You are
snatching away pedestrian’s right to walk and your answer to that is that you
are charging fines and taxes?” the court said. Saluja, while informing the
court about facilities provided for pedestrians, said that skywalks had been
constructed all across the city.
The court,
meanwhile, also remarked, “Skywalks have been made but no one uses them. They
are in a precarious condition. They are useless for a person above 65 years of
age. After 8 pm, it is very difficult for the common man, especially women, to
use these skywalks.” The court has now asked the state counsel to take
instructions from the officers of departments concerned regarding this issue
and combine all the petitions relating to parking and traffic in the city of
Mumbai.
“The traffic
official figures say that the city has seen a nine-fold increase in parking
offences in the past five years. An RTI application by activist Chetan Kothari
revealed that the number of parking offences had jumped from 36,206 in 2005, to
3,22,932 in 2009,” the PIL stated.
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