Road Blockade by Local Rowdies 3

A Road in Ashok Nagar was completely blocked by Mechanic Shop owners and the road was utilised as Mechanical Shop Backyard by them. Since last year (July, 2012) we reported the situation several times (Post 1, Post 2) in Facebook CCTP Page, but there were no proper response.

By the last week of Febraury, 2013 two of our volunteers went to the spot and tried removing the obstruction. But the mechanic shop owners jumped in and after around 30 mins of heated arguments, the situation turned really hard for our volunteers as around 20 to 30 people gathered against them. Calling 100 was in vain as no one showed up for over 15 minutes. Our volunteers were pushed to the situation where they were compelled to apologize and to place the Barricade in its place again.

Complaint and Response

Then we made our move legally. A Complaint was sent to Add. Commissioner of Police, Kilpauk on March 12, 2013 with photocopies of Road Blocks. Inspector of Police, R-3 Police Station replied on March 14, 2013 after removing the illegally parked vehicles in road. CTP (Chennai Traffic Police) stated that it is them who placed the Road barricade and not any local mafia. But we were very much skeptical on this statement and we followed up in our next RTI. (Read further to know more)

Below the photo proof sent by Police before and after removing illegally parked vehicles in that road.

As on April 08, 2013, the status of illegally parked vehicles and the barricade remains not much changed and so on April 08, 2013 a RTI application has been filed enquiring the status of the complaint and actions taken and related questions.

Some of the important questions from the RTI is as follows:

1. Reasons for not placing any sign board (especially “Two wheelers only”)
2. General procedure to be followed by CTP (Chennai Traffic Police) to place Road Barricade
3. Reason for using Bicycle, Garbage Bins, Broken Tree to block the road. Is CTP ran out of funds ??? (Our thoughts are that IT IS local Mechanics who blocked the road by bribing Traffic Police. But CTP cant tell that in a written statement and said it was them who placed the barricades. Now will they tell that they were low on budget and borrowed things from local people to block the road?)

4. Certified Copy of Circular / Notification issued by CTP regarding this barricade in the above mentioned place.

Our RTI application was returned from R3 Police Station stating `want of clear address`. The address was mentioned very clearly (as in Log 3). So the application was sent again to DCP, Egmore and separate complaints were lodged (through email) on R3, Inspector of Police and the Postman for returning the RTI with improper response. As of now Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic ordered the Deputy Commissioner, Traffic South to answer the Applicant.

Victory

Atlast, the barricades were removed on (or before) April 21st, 2013. But all the mechanic shop vehicles in the road were not moved yet, though its much better than before. Also we are not done yet, stil One RTI to followup, to give some pressure to the authorities so they (hopefully) dont let similar things happen again. Here is the photos of the clean road.

Link to Original RTI and Complaints

Status: Victory, Barricades are removed !!!