Bharati Vidyapeeth Bhavan staff park four-wheelers in footpath slots meant for two-wheelers
Bharati Vidyapeeth Bhavan staff park four-wheelers in footpath slots meant for two-wheelersForu00a0sometime the Bharati Vidyapeeth Bhavan has been considering the footpath in front of its nine-storey building as its personal parking lot.u00a0 The cars and government vehicles of those working in the university, including the vice-chancellor's car, are always parked on the pavement, giving no leeway to pedestrians or other vehicles to park there. A section of the sidewalk was originally to be used to park two-wheelers.
Eating up space: Cars are parked along the Bharati Vidyapeeth Bhavan
complex near Alakh Theater Chowk, originally meant for two-wheelers.
Pic/Krunal GosaviResidents in the area said the traffic police preferred to look the other way, as the founder of the university Dr Patangrao Kadam, is the current forest minister. Nitin Sarode, a college student, said the place was a big mess and all efforts to bring it to the notice of the traffic police had borne no fruition.
A senior lawyer working in the family court in the Bharati Vidyapeeth, on condition of anonymity, said people from the vidyapeeth did not allow anybody else to park there. "The slot demarcated for two-wheelers is already full in the morning and we have to park our vehicles on the nearby roads," he said. "It is futile to inform the police as Kadam is a minister and they don't want to go against him."
MiD DAY visited the spot and observed that cars were parked on the slot demarcated for two wheelers near Alka Theater. Some of the vehicles have the Maharashtra Government tag on them.u00a0 Vikas Bakare, a resident of the area, said the place was allotted for two-wheeler parking only.
"No one bothers to keep an eye on which vehicles are being parked there. Isn't this the responsibility of the traffic police," he asked. "It is only the vidyapeeth staff but the general public also violate the parking rules".
Ramchandra Dige, a security guard, who works at the Bharti Vidyapeeth Bhavan, admitted the university staff were using the footpath to park their cars. "We have, however, made arrangements for a two-wheelers parking lot adjoining the footpath," he said.
Traffic cops saysAPI J D Pagare, in charge of traffic control on Tilak Road, said that the issue of the parking lot has been a major headache for the last eight months. "We objected to the vice-chancellor's car being parked on the footpath opposite the complex. We have penalised many cars for parking on the road. Former DCP Manoj Patil had also taken cognition of the violation of parking rules on the road in front of the building," he said.
A traffic constable on duty admitted that cars regularly parked on the slot meant for two-wheelers.
