BENGALURU: Towing of vehicles parked at spots not designated for the same has sent tempers soaring among motorists in the city, occasionally leading to unseemly scenes.
The issue even necessitated chief minister Basavaraj Bommai himself chairing a meeting on Monday. Motorists, however, wonder if the government will keep a tight leash on traffic police and towing personnel.
Last week, an assistant sub-inspector (traffic) was caught on video kicking a specially abled woman after she allegedly pelted stones at him. The incident happened when cops were towing vehicles. The video went viral and drew flak. Netizens commented the ASI should have lodged a complaint against the woman instead of kicking her on the street.
Another video of a food delivery boy chasing a towing vehicle near Indiranagar after his motorbike was lifted too drew criticism.
However, senior cops maintained the bike was returned without him being fined.
Last September, sleuths from Anti-Corruption Bureau had trapped a towing vehicle staffer while accepting bribe of Rs 800 from a motorist to release his vehicle which was parked in the wrong place.
There have been repeated instances of towing vehicle staffers being accused of behaving inappropriately with the public and not following guidelines like prior announcement and waiting time of five minutes before lifting any vehicle for wrong parking.
Towing vehicles parked in wrong spots is a money spinner of sorts for traffic police. The first four months of 2021 saw fines totalling Rs 1.7 crore collected from motorists whose vehicles were towed. In January, 6,945 vehicles were towed for wrong parking and cops netted Rs 49,61,050 in fines. As many as 5,487 vehicles were towed in February, fetching fines of Rs 39,93,550. In March, the vehicle number was 6,286 and fine amount Rs 45,67,475. In April, cops collected Rs 30,23,800 in fines from owners of 3,142 vehicles.
Two-wheeler owners are fined Rs 1,150 if their vehicles are towed for parking violations, while four-wheelers draw a penalty of Rs 1,650. “From each vehicle lifted, owner of the towing vehicle gets Rs 350 as commission and the remaining goes to the government,” traffic police sources said. Going by this, towing vehicles were paid Rs 76,51,000 till June 10 in 2021.
There are 100 towing vehicles attached with 44 traffic police stations. Five staffers and one ASI must be present in each. It must be equipped with a public address system and one camera each in front and back. Last November, 32 towing vehicles were temporarily suspended for not following guidelines.
“A towing vehicle costs us more than Rs 15 lakh and we also have to bear salary, fuel and maintenance expenses. It is true that some of our staffers behaved rudely; we have removed them from the job. We have purchased the vehicles by raising loans from banks and need to pay monthly instalments. If vehicles are stopped, we have no income,” one of the owners told TOI.
Another owner said some vehicles are owned by retired police officers. “There are many untold stories about towing vehicles, especially of corruption related to allocating jobs to towing vehicles. We request police commissioner Kamal Pant to give an appointment to owners of towing vehicles so that we can explain these things,” he said.
