Bengaluru: The city traffic police is currently carrying out a week-long drive to clear encroachments of footpaths and make them more pedestrian friendly.
The police aims to ensure that footpaths across the city are free from street vendors, petty shops, illegal parking of vehicles and dumping of construction materials.
The traffic police have urged the public to click photos of encroached footpath and send it to their social media account and assured that immediate action will be taken.
When a senior traffic police officer was asked as to why the police were carrying out the drive and not the BBMP, he replied that the pedestrians’ lives were endangered, as they are forced to walk on the roads, because the footpaths have been taken over by hawkers or parked vehicles. “We informed the BBMP about the issue and they told us that we can ourselves carry out the drive and they will assist us.”
“This drive will continue until the footpaths across the city are free of encroachments. Till date, over 800 encroachments have been removed across Old Airport Road, V.V. Puram, Bellandur, Garudacharpalya and surrounding areas,” he added.
Another officer mentioned that after a month, the footpaths will be again inspected and if any encroachments are found, criminal cases will be booked against offenders.
“Every time, a drive is carried out, we have found that hawkers return and illegal parking resumes on footpaths. This shows that the offenders have no fear, but this time, severe action will be taken. Any vehicle parked on the footpath will be towed away immediately,” he added.
Meanwhile, the public have started posting photographs on social media and some have requested the police to look into their area at the earliest.
Sumalatha, a housewife from Ramamurthy Nagar, said, “The traffic police should have a look at Ramamurthy Nagar main road and they will be shocked to find the amount of encroachment. I request them to clear footpaths, as people are forced to walk on the roads.”
Those dumping construction materials like pipes or wires on the footpaths will also have to be careful. The materials will be seized and the offenders will have to pay a penalty to get it cleared.
