Noida police stations turning into junkyards

More than 3,000 impounded vehicles have piled up at these places with no one reclaiming them

Noida police stations turning into junkyards

More than 3,000 impounded vehicles have piled up at these places with no one reclaiming them

Looks can be deceptive. Several police stations in Noida today resemble junkyards or secondhand car showrooms at best. More than 3,000 vehicles are now standing inside the premises of six police stations in the area. Noida cops are now thinking of ways to get rid of these pieces of waste; so far they have failed. There are no takers since most of these vehicles are in extremely poor shape.

Not so hot wheels: Sector 20 police station of Noida is becoming a
junkyard with impounded cars and bikes piling up as case property.
There are no takers for these vehicles. PICs/Imtiyaz Khan

Most of the bikes, scooters, cars, autos, trucks and buses standing here re those impounded by police in cases of accident or theft as case property. After they are brought to the police station, these automobiles are kept under open sky without proper care. Most of the vehicles can be seen without tires, tubes, handle, light, sound system, batteries and other basic equipment making it impossible to move them.

The high-profile sector 20 police station is a prime example with more than 1000 vehicles stationed here. The situation had recently become so bad that cops were even compelled to park a few impounded buses and cars outside the station.

Immobile
Now Noida police is desperately looking for answers. Most of the vehicles are case property so they cannot be sold or given to the owner till the disposal order comes from court. Normally verdict in such cases comes late and till the time disposal order is given the vehicle is in such a bad condition that it only qualifies as junk. Even in auctions done by Noida police, there are no buyers. Some of these vehicles are sold to scrap dealers at dirt cheap prices.

Interestingly most of the vehicles standing at the police stations are involved in theft cases. By the time the police receive these vehicles, the owners collect the money from insurance and never reclaim the vehicle.
According to SP (city) Anant Dev, police is trying to control this mess on priority basis as it is taking up a lot of space at the police stations. The authorities are working on an online mechanism where people can find out about lost vehicles and they can be accessed at any time which will help them in knowing the status of the
vehicle.

Speak up!
Noida police also maintains that a part of the problem is lack of communication between police of NCR region. After recovering stolen vehicles, UP police is sometimesu00a0 not able to contact the owner if he or she is living in a neighbouring state.u00a0 Recently home ministry started an online system 'policenet' to bring proper communication between police of different states. But so far it has also received a lukewarm response.

Trash talk
MiD DAY hand reported on July 8, how the Dabri police colony in Delhi is turning into a waste dumping ground.