Cranes are special trucks used for lifting wrongly parked vehicles on the streets in capital cities or towns. To avoid congested traffic or traffic jams on main streets in a city or a town, Traffic Police lift the wrongly parked vehicles from the site. Some careless people park their vehicles at wrong places. They leave the vehicles there and go to attend their errands oblivious of the fact that their wrongly parked vehicle becomes an obstruction to the city traffic where streets are already narrow and congested.
There is no open pace to push the vehicle away. The subject under discussion is about procurement of cranes and their usage. Traffic police do not have their own cranes and they hire these for a period of 11 months from a private owner/supplier in Srinagar. This agreement can be renewed after the expiry of 11 months. The Traffic Police concludes an agreement with the owner/supplier according to which the cranes are deployed and paid for.
The agreement stipulates that out of an amount of Rs 600 being realized as towing charges from the operators of wrongly parked vehicles, an amount of Rs 242 per lift is being paid to the owners of the cranes and the remaining amount of Rs 358 is being deposited in the Government Treasury through Jammu and Kashmir Bank. Maintenance of the crane, salary of the driver and fuel are the responsibility of the owner. The first question is what criterion is laid down to charge six hundred rupees from the defaulter? Secondly, what is the criterion for paying rupees 242 per lift to the owner and retaining the remaining amount of rupees 358 for itself. This practice has been going on for last four or five years.
The pertinent question is why the Traffic Police are not purchasing the cranes for the fleet of vehicles and instead is obliging a private owner with huge money every year. Traffic Police have paid 1.45 crore rupees as rent to the owner/supplier of cranes for last four years. Traffic Police could have purchased the cranes against this huge expenditure to be used whenever needed. We understand that there has been thinking along these lines and even proposal to the effect was made but the matter has not been taken up by the concerned authorities. Their argument is that firstly, no budgetary provisions are made for purchase of cranes. Secondly, it would be cumbersome to maintain the cranes besides the compulsion of hiring drivers for them and the fuel consumption. So far the department has five cranes at its disposal in both the regions but it is likely to be eight in near feature. However, the Traffic Police has a large fleet of vehicles at its disposal. If the maintenance of those vehicles is not cumbersome how come the few cranes would become difficult to maintain. As far as budgetary provision, the idea of purchasing the cranes has to be mooted at proper level. When the Traffic Police Department does not move the case how any budget can be provided for the purchase of cranes.
We would like to suggest the Traffic Police Department that 8 cranes be added to the fleet of vehicles and get it through at the level of Purchase Committee and Finance Department so that its inclusion in the annual budget proposal is confirmed. Purchase your own cranes and put them to use properly and stop showing unnecessary favours to one or the other owner or supplier of private crane service.
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