SHIMLA------The High Court of H.P. has issued notice to the State Government and the Shimla Municipal Corporation on the mismanagement of traffic and unauthorized parking of vehicles in Shimla and directed them to come out with the long term vision plan on how they are going to regulate and manage traffic in Shimla, other District Head Quarters and tourist places.
A Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed these orders on a petition filed by one Sh. Dharam Pal Thakur of Panthaghati, Shimla treating it as a Public Interest Litigation.
The Court directed the State Govt. to file status report on the implementation of the Shimla Road Users and Pedestrians (Public Safety & Convenience) Act, 2007 and also to furnish the list of permits granted by the authorities for plying of vehicles on sealed and restricted roads.
The Court also directed the authorities to furnish affidavit stating whether CCTV cameras have deployed and fixed at entry points and what is the mechanism in place to check and deter unnecessary vehicles on sealed and restricted roads, whether traffic police is manning the entry points to these roads and proper signals have been fixed, to report on proper usage of earmarked parking places and also on steps taken to prevent unauthorized parking.
The petitioner has alleged in his petition that the authorities have failed to diligently perform their duties, leading to chaos and haphazardness, which has made day to day movement of residents and tourists very difficult. He alleged that the authorities are lax in implementation of Shimla Road Users Act, traffic Police deployment on sealed and restricted roads is insufficient Parking on such roads is not permitted but these have virtually become parking lots for the vehicles of high and mighty. Govt. vehicles are also running on sealed and restricted roads without permits and HRTC taxis are also plying on these routes with dangerous speed. Private ambulances with no patients can be seen playing on these roads without check.
He alleged that neither is there any plan with the govt. nor there space and infrastructure to deal with increasing number of vehicles in Shimla City as there are only 32 notified taxi stands and 13 M.C. paid parking with total capacity of only 480 vehicles. Hence, unauthorized parking severely hampering the movement of traffic can be seen near hotels and offices on circular road, sanjauli, Chotta Shimla, Boileuganj, Kasumpati, BCS etc., but the most serious part is when such unauthorized parking is near IGMC, Kamla Nehru Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, due to which patients are feeling lot of inconvenience in reaching hospital.
The Court has also directed the govt. to report steps to prevent unauthorized parking in around IGMC, Kamla Nehru Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and also on the policy prevalent for manning HRTC taxis on sealed and restricted roads. The Court also directed the Municipal Corporation to file status report indicating what steps it has taken till today and how the M.C. is managing parking of vehicles.
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