The Thane Traffic department will direct operators deployed on towing vans while taking action on illegally parked vehicle aside road. The traffic officials will now keep a strict vigil on these operators who often skip the rules which are needed to be followed while towing vehicles, leading to disputes between the motorists and operators.
"The towing operators have been directed to follow all the rules and steps while taking action against the vehicles parked aside the road. The steps like making the announcement before carrying out the action, pasting stickers consisting of the name of particular traffic beat and their contact number, are skipped by the operators. Besides, complaints of vehicles being damaged while towing vehicles have often been received from the citizens," said a Thane traffic official.
"Following the above steps will help the motorists to easily recover their vehicles from the specific traffic beat. Many times these steps are skipped by the towing operators leading to conflicts between operators and citizens. Hence, strict directions have been issued to the towing operators by the Thane traffic department as far as the above rules that need to be followed while implementing action against illegally parked vehicles in public area or aside roads," added official.
There are complaints about the notice written by chalk on the spot, that often get vanished leading to confusion. Citizens don’t know which beat has seized their vehicles or whether their vehicle has been stolen from the spot, informed traffic official.
The complaints received from the citizens has highlighted that the rules which are issued while signing contract with the towing operators were not being followed properly by them. Therefore, strict directions have been issued, by the deputy commissioner of police, Balasaheb Patil, from Thane traffic department," said official.
"With this, if the vehicle owner removes his vehicle from illegal parking following the announcement while their regular patrolling, within a specific time, the vehicle owner will be charged only for illegal parking and not for towing charges. However, if one fails to recover his vehicle during that period, it will be seized by towing operators, who will be responsible to paste the sticker on the spot which consists of the contact number and traffic beat. The operators will be also responsible to record the video of the above process and report it to the concerned traffic officials," added the traffic official from Thane.
