January 4: When driving instructor Shamim Siddiqui filed a complaint with the V P Road police that his Fiat car was missing from Charni Road little did he know that the culprit was the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).Siddiqui, whose car was traced to the civic dumping yard at Kandivli, is not the lone victim of the BMC's tussle with the city police. An increasing number of vehicle theft complaints is being filed at the various police stations which are subsequently being traced to the BMC's dumping yards.
The traffic and coordination department of the BMC has been towing away vehicles parked on the roads without informing their owners. Unlike the traffic department, the civic department tows away vehicles without leaving a chalk mark on the parking spot for the vehicles owners to pay fine to the appropriate authority.
The civic department tows away vehicles for "unauthorised garaging activities and obstruction in the traffic" under the BMC Act. However, it has no system of informing the
vehicle owners.
"It is a classic example of communication gap between two government departments where the left hand does not know what the right one is doing," complained a deputy commissioner of police.
Last year alone, the BMC towed away over 1,500 vehicles, while in the year before last the BMC had whisked away over 2,800 vehicles in a similar fashion. "We do not need to inform the local police. Our towing squad is always accompanied by a traffic cop," maintains the executive engineer in the traffic and coordination department, Devendra Ahiwale.
Taking strong objection to the arbitrary functioning of the BMC, senior police inspector at the V P Road police station, Suresh Jadhav, whose police station had registered the maximum number of such complaints, dashed off a letter to the BMC officials last week.
"They should know that once an FIR is registered, legally the BMC can be charged with theft. I don't believe that their team is escorted by a traffic personnel," counters Jadhav.
The BMC towing
squad is known to dump vehicles in their dumping yards at Lower Parel, Kandivli, Govandi, Jacob Circle and then sending a letter to the car owners billing them for towing and yard expenses in their own sweet time.
"We are very prompt in informing the car owners about their vehicles in our dumping yards. We don't know that why owners are lodging a complaint with the police," maintains Ahiwale.
The car theft victims have a totally different story to tell. According to Rajesh Patel, he was informed of his motorbike lying in the Lower Parel dumping yard nine months after his bike was towed away. While Siddiqui was informed of his car lying in the Kandivli dumping yard, more than seven months after his car was picked.
Incidentally, the motor vehicle theft is the highest number of crime incidents recorded with the police and the graph is rising every year. In 1996, the total number of vehicles reported stolen in the city were 2997, while in 1997 it shot up to 3269.
"Every quarterly we show our list to the
crime branch, " claims Ahiwale which PI Jadhav denied.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
